Luxembourg MEP Kartheiser canvasses colleagues for June trip to Putin's St Petersburg forum

Luxembourg MEP Fernand Kartheiser has emailed fellow members of the European Parliament asking them to travel to St Petersburg on 3 June 2026 for in-person meetings with Russian State Duma deputies, on the margins of Vladimir Putin's flagship economic forum, Politico reported on 7 May.

Key facts

• The recruiter: Fernand Kartheiser, Luxembourg MEP, sitting as a non-attached lawmaker after his June 2025 expulsion from the European Conservatives and Reformists group over an earlier Moscow trip.
• The destination: St Petersburg, Russia, on 3 June 2026, on the sidelines of the St Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), the Putin-chaired investor showcase.
• The pitch, verbatim: "Assistance with finding suitable accommodation can be provided, and personalised invitations to the St Petersburg Economic Forum will follow in due course."
• Funding and stated purpose: Kartheiser told Politico the trip is privately financed and aimed at restoring "dialogue with Russia on ministerial level".
• Critic on the record: Lithuanian Renew Europe MEP Petras Auštrevičius called it "an open attempt to recruit" lawmakers "for working for Russia as informants, influencers and more".
• Institutional line: a European Parliament spokesperson said the institution has had no formal cooperation with the State Duma since 2014 and that MEPs engaging with Russia "are acting in their sole capacity".

Who is Fernand Kartheiser

Kartheiser, a former Luxembourg diplomat and one of the country's six MEPs, has built a distinct profile inside the Strasbourg hemicycle by repeatedly arguing for the resumption of high-level political contacts with Moscow despite the war in Ukraine. He sat with the European Conservatives and Reformists until his trip to Moscow in spring 2025 prompted the group to expel him in late May and June 2025. He has been a non-attached member ever since, with no party group rights to speaking time, committee co-ordination or political-group funding.

What the recruitment letter says

According to the email seen by Politico, Kartheiser is offering colleagues an "in-person meeting" with State Duma representatives in St Petersburg on 3 June, with logistical help on accommodation and "personalised invitations" to the forum to follow. The Kyiv Independent, which obtained an earlier version of the email at the end of April, reported that recipients were told the meeting would take place on the margins of SPIEF and that the invitation would be extended to a wider list of EU lawmakers. Kartheiser declined to tell Politico whether any of his colleagues had accepted.

Why Brussels is alarmed

SPIEF is Russia's main set-piece investor event, opened each year by Vladimir Putin and used by the Kremlin to showcase political alignment with foreign visitors. Auštrevičius, a senior figure on the Parliament's foreign affairs committee, characterised Kartheiser's campaign in the strongest terms available to a sitting MEP, calling it "an open attempt to recruit" lawmakers to act "as informants, influencers and more" for Russia. Euromaidan Press noted that the trip would mean MEPs sharing a stage with Duma deputies who voted to authorise the 2022 invasion of Ukraine and who are individually under EU sanctions.

The Parliament's institutional response

A European Parliament spokesperson, asked by Politico to comment, declined to address the case but pointed to two standing rules. First, the chamber has had no formal interparliamentary cooperation with the Russian State Duma since the annexation of Crimea in 2014, and the relevant delegation remains suspended. Second, MEPs travelling to meet Russian officials "act in their sole capacity" and are bound by a code of conduct that forbids them from accepting "direct or indirect benefit or other reward" in exchange for specific parliamentary behaviour. The wording is the same one invoked in the Qatargate-era reforms, and limits even privately funded contact with hostile-state officials.

The Luxembourg angle

The story lands awkwardly in Luxembourg, whose government under Prime Minister Luc Frieden has been one of the European Union's more vocal supporters of Ukraine, both in defence-spending pledges and in EU sanctions coordination. Kartheiser sits in the Parliament for the right-populist ADR but, as a non-attached member, speaks for no group. Domestic political reaction so far has been muted, with no statement from the Luxembourg government, the foreign ministry or the Frieden coalition's main parties on Kartheiser's letter as of the morning of 8 May.

Bottom line

Kartheiser is one MEP, sitting alone, but his recruitment campaign for a Putin-flagship event tests the European Parliament's tolerance for unilateral outreach to Moscow during the Ukraine war. Whether colleagues respond, and how the Parliament's services treat the trip if it happens on 3 June, will set the precedent for what an individual MEP can offer Russia under the institution's current rules.