Far-right Front National's Russian loan: '31 mln euros more to follow'

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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.

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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.

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