Russian loan: the RN taxed as a “transmission belt” of the Kremlin, a “dishonest report” for Le Pen

2023-06-01 16:19:30

The report of the commission of inquiry into foreign interference accuses the National Front (FN), which became the National Rally (RN) of having been a “transmission belt” of Russian power. This is what parliamentary sources revealed on Thursday, confirming extracts revealed by RMC and Mediapart.

This report, written by Renaissance MP Constance Le Grip, who leaked, denounces in particular the “alignment” of the FN with the “Russian discourse” at the time of the “illegal annexation” of Crimea in 2014, a few months after have negotiated a loan from a Czech-Russian bank. It was the RN, itself, which had launched this parliamentary commission of inquiry at the end of 2022, supposed to defuse the regular accusations on the subject.

The leader of the far-right party reacted on Thursday, saying that this report was “dishonest and completely politicized”. The leader of the flame party had been auditioned last week by this commission on possible political quid pro quos in exchange for the Russian loan. “There is nothing, in fact”, she assured, denouncing “a political trial” during a press conference in Pas-de-Calais.

“If it had committed me to anything, I would not have signed,” said Marine Le Pen during her hearing, about this loan of 9.4 million euros from the First Czech Russian Bank, based in Moscow during his audition. She subsequently refused to condemn Putin’s annexation of Crimea. On the merits, “I considered that freely, the inhabitants of Crimea had expressed themselves by the vote to be attached to Russia”, had dropped the president of the RN deputies.

A “smear campaign”

“I formally dispute that I made any decision whatsoever to please anyone,” she explained, arguing that “whether or not a loan arrived did not change opinions one iota. who have always been ours”. She also assured that she was unaware at the time that the head of this bank was close to the Kremlin.

She added on Thursday that “all the authorities who were questioned” in this report “indicated that there was nothing”, considering that a “campaign of defamation and slander” had been built around this loan.

“The commission overwhelms the Le Pen clan: it is only justice for these patriots of the living room, accomplices of the enemies of the Republic”, commented the deputy Renaissance Sacha Houlié. LFI elected officials, on the other hand, regretted that the report did not go further. It shows “at least a guilty casualness” of the RN with regard to Russia, but it is not “exhaustive” on the influence of other states in France, estimated the Insoumis Aurélien Saintoul. The deputy EELV Julien Bayou meanwhile mentioned “a fisaco” which “comes back into the teeth” of the RN.