France’s far-right Front National party has sought a loan of 40 million euros from Russian contacts, according to information obtained by Mediapart. After the party’s leader Marine Le Pen last weekend confirmed it had been lent 9 million euros from a Moscow bank, a senior party official has told Mediapart that this was a “first instalment” and that another 31 million euros “will follow”, a claim refuted by Le Pen. Meanwhile, Russian media reports have speculated that the Russian bank deal could not have been reached without approval by the Kremlin. Marine Turchi reports.
Earlier this month Mediapart revealed how the far-right Front National party had obtained a loan of 9 million euros from the Moscow-based First Czech Russian Bank, in a move that has followed the party’s rapprochement with a number of senior Russian political figures, including Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin and Sergei Naryshkin, speaker of the Russian lower house, the Duma, a figure close to President Vladimir Putin.
