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http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/27274-focus-putin-funds-far-right-in-france-qits-no-secretq-says-marine-le-pen Putin Funds Far Right in France. "It's No Secret," says Marine Le Pen by Steve Weissman, Reader Supported News December 2, 2014 hile the US and its NATO allies compete with the Kremlin in a nuclear-tinged and very Orwellian Cold War <http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/26884-focus-putting-a-stop-to-the-new-cold-war>, Vladimir Putin is bankrolling Marine Le Pen’s Front National (FN) in France. The story is still breaking, fed by an escalating string of revelations from Mediapart <http://www.mediapart.fr/journal/france/221114/le-front-national-decroche-les-millions-russes>, one of Europe’s most dependable sites for investigative reporting. According to its sources in and around the FN, the party stands to receive some €40 million from Putin to cover campaign expenses for regional and departmental elections in 2015 and the legislative and presidential elections in 2017. Taking campaign funds from a foreign government would break French law, to be sure. But the money comes in the form of “loans” from the Moscow-based First Czech Russian Bank, whose head – Roman Yakubovich Popov – is a former state banker and well-placed member of the Russian political establishment. “A first installment has been released from a loan of 40 million,” a member of FN’s political bureau told Mediapart <http://www.mediapart.fr/journal/france/261114/le-fn-attend-40-millions-deuros-de-russie>. “The installment of 9 million has arrived, 31 will follow.” “Mediapart has lost its head,” Marine Le Pen answered on Twitter <https://twitter.com/MLP_officiel/status/537699728054833153>, adamantly denying the larger figure: “The sums they mention are totally fanciful.” The €9 million she was forced admit. This “is no secret,” she told Le Monde <http://www.lemonde.fr/politique/article/2014/11/23/marine-le-pen-justifie-le-pret-russe-du-fn_4528041_823448.html> with her usual sangfroid. She even instructed FN’s treasurer to report the “loans” to the party congress this past weekend, where they were celebrated <http://www.mediapart.fr/journal/france/291114/au-congres-du-fn-la-camaraderie-russe-est-bruyamment-mise-en-scene> in the company of two Russian dignitaries and fellow-travelers like Holland’s Geert Wilders and the Italian Matteo Salvini of the League of the North. . . . _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
