France’s\u00a0National Front, is in talks with a Kremlin-linked bank to borrow \u20ac40 million to win power in France, Mediapart reports.<\/p>\n
The Paris-based online investigative journal last weekend said Marine Le Pen\u2019s party received a \u20ac9 million loan from the First Czech Russian Bank (FCRB), which is de facto owned by Roman Popov, a Kremlin-connected oligarch.<\/p>\n
But it says in a second report on Wednesday (26 November) the \u20ac9 million is the tip of the iceberg.<\/p>\n
It notes that its own investigation is corroborated by a member of the Front National\u2019s political bureau.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first tranche was paid on a loan of \u20ac40 million \u2026 the tranche of \u20ac9 million has arrived, 31 others will follow,\u201d the source said.<\/p>\n
It also cites Bernard Monot, a National Front MEP, who told Mediapart: \u201cWe expressed, for sure, a need for comprehensive financing in our discussions with the bank \u2026 Our potential need until the [French] presidential and legislative elections [due in 2017] is \u20ac45 million\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re getting there step by step. We\u2019re refining it as we go \u2026 We are on a long-term financial package\u201d.<\/p>\n
Wallerand de Saint-Just, the National Front’s treasurer, said he knows nothing about the larger sum.<\/p>\n
But he noted the party needs between \u20ac35 million and \u20ac40 million to contest the 2017 votes.<\/p>\n
He added he cannot exclude that larger sums were mentioned by Jean-Luc Schaffhauser, a National Front MEP who negotiated the FRCB deal, in Schaffhauser’s contacts with the bank.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Le Pen herself tweeted on Wednesday evening: \u201cMediapart has lost its head. The amounts it talks about are a total fantasy. FN got a \u20ac9mn loan. Full stop\u201d.<\/p>\n
She told AFP the \u20ac40 million report is \u201cfantastic, delirious\u201d.<\/p>\n
EU blacklist
\nMediapart goes on to say that Le Pen personally sealed the FRCB loan on a \u201csecret\u201d trip to Russia in February.<\/p>\n
It quotes an unnamed Le Pen aide as saying: \u201cMarine Le Pen came at the final stage [of the negotiations]. Yes. To see where we are putting our feet\u201d.<\/p>\n
It notes that Schaffhauser, who was present at the meeting, introduced her to Alexander Babakov, a Russian MP, who was the \u201ckey\u201d to the FRCB deal.<\/p>\n
The EU blacklisted Babakov in September because he voted Yes on a Russian bill on the annexation of Crimea.<\/p>\n
The 51-year old, who was born in Moldova, has business interests in the Czech Republic, France, and Ukraine.<\/p>\n
According to documents published by Russian anti-corruption activist Alexei Navalny, the Russian MP owns at least \u20ac11 million of real estate in France via his wife, Irina Babakova.<\/p>\n
According to Czech media, he was also the co-founder of a Czech-based shell company, Albion CZ, which was liquidated in June.<\/p>\n
The National Front revelations come amid multiplying reports of Kremlin ties to anti-EU far-right parties.<\/p>\n
German tabloid Bild on Monday cited German intelligence sources as saying Russia is financing the eurosceptic AfD party.<\/p>\n
It said the Kremlin used middlemen to sell gold to AfD at below-market prices without AfD\u2019s knowledge of who was behind the transactions.<\/p>\n
The left-wing SPO party in Austria has also accused the far-right FPO of receiving Russian money.<\/p>\n
AfD and FPO denied the claims. But their Kremlin links were on display this week in meetings in Berlin and Moscow.<\/p>\n
Source: euobserver.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
France’s\u00a0National Front, is in talks with a Kremlin-linked bank to borrow \u20ac40 million to win power in France, Mediapart reports. The Paris-based online investigative journal last weekend said Marine Le Pen\u2019s party received a \u20ac9 million loan from the First Czech Russian Bank (FCRB), which is de facto owned by Roman Popov, a Kremlin-connected oligarch. … Continue reading “Front National gets Kremlin loan”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2961,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49,3],"tags":[70,534,2817,66],"class_list":["post-17043","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-europe","category-news","tag-eu","tag-france","tag-front-national","tag-russia"],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2961"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17043"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17043\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17044,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17043\/revisions\/17044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}