Le Pen's far-right party repays Russian loan – but questions remain over links to Putin regime
France's far-right Rassemblement National party recently announced that it has repaid the controversial loan it took out with Russian financial institutions. In doing so, Marine Le Pen's party is seeking both to portray itself as a good financial manager and remove what has become a political millstone around its neck since the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Yet the party's announcement came just five days after revelations by Mediapart raised fresh concerns over the close links between the the French party and the Putin regime at the time the loan was arranged. As Marine Turchi reports, questions still linger over exactly how the loan was obtained and the commissions that were paid to arrange it.
FiveFive days after Mediapart published revelations over the role of one of Vladimir Putin's loyal lieutenants in helping France's far-right Rassemblement National (RN) to obtain a nine million euro Russian loan, the party announced that it had repaid the debt some “60 months” ahead of schedule.
