German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said on Thursday that Russian President Vladimir Putin fears Europe's social and democratic model, and that Europe should resist his attempts to divide its countries.

Schaeuble said it was not the expansion of the European Union or NATO that worried Russia's government, but Europe's "soft power" moving closer to Russia's borders. "That's why [Putin's] trying to weaken Europe, by dividing us and tempting us to think only in narrow national terms, and we must not play into his hands," Schaueble said at an event at the London School of Economics during a visit to the British capital.

In December 2015, Martin Schulz also warned that "there were forces trying to pull it apart," without specifying what these forces are that threatens the EU. Reuters cited Schulz saying, "No one can say whether the EU will still exist in this form in 10 years' time. If we want that then we need to fight very hard for it."

Previously, Marine Le Pen, the head of France's far-right National Front (FN), admitted that her party received money from a Russian bank, according to The Times. There has already been growing evidence that the Kremlin backs euro sceptic parties across the continent, according to reports on the news website, The Week.