In France
The Front National, the party of Marie LePen requested $30 million from Russia in early 2016 to finance the 2017 elections. In 2014, The National Front received $14 million from Russia through a bank front, First Czech Russian Bank.[i] Jean-Luc Schaffenhauser helped to broker the loan between the party and Russia after failing to secure the funds from a UAE source.[ii]
National Front secured $2.5 million loan from Yuri Kudimov, former KGB officer who ran Russian bank, VEB Capital.[iii] Kudimov also owned Vernonsia Holdings out of Cyprus. Kudimov was charged for spying in 1985 and expelled from the UK.[iv] National Front also secured funds from Kudimov’s Vernonsia Holdings Ltd, out of Cyprus. [v]
GROUPS:
NATIONAL FRONT
FRENCH RENEWAL
[i] Moscow Times, “Marine Le Pen’s Party asks Russia for €27 Million Loan”, February 19, 2016, http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/marine-le-pens-party-asks-russia-for-27-million-loan/560066.html
[ii] Gabriel Gatehouse, BBC Panorama, “Marine Le Pen: Who’s Funding France’s far right?”, April 3, 2017, http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-39478066
[iii] Suzanne Daley and Maia de la Baume , New York Times, “French Far Right Gets Helping Hand with Russian Loan”, December 1, 2014, https://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/02/world/europe/french-far-right-gets-helping-hand-with-russian-loan-.html
[iv] Gianluca Mezzofiore, IBTimes, “Former ‘London KGB agent’ Yuri Kudimov ‘lent €2m to FN’s Jean-Marie Le Pen’, December 1, 2014, http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/former-london-kgb-agent-yuri-kudimov-lent-2m-fns-jean-marie-le-pen-1477450
[v] Andrew Rettman, EU Observer, “Mediapart: Former Russian spy lent €2mn to Le Pen senior “, December 1, 2014, https://euobserver.com/foreign/126731