According to their latest report:
"Vilis Dambiņš, a director of an intermediary company managing assets related to the family of Vladimir Putin’s special representative for relations with Russian organisations abroad Alexander Babakov, has personally met with at least two high-ranking officials of Le Pen’s Front National (FN) to discuss options for the party to get a Russian loan."
The allegation is the result of a joint investigation by the Baltic center of investigative journalism Re:Baltica and French online investigative journal Mediapart.fr.
BREAKING: @rebaltica investigation - Latvian financier said to act as a go-between to get Russian loan for Le Pen https://t.co/nt0fYDywKi pic.twitter.com/FykDkRcnzL
— Inga Springe (@IngaSpringe) May 2, 2017
The source of the main information upon which the story is based is Jean-Luc Schaffhauser, a member of the European Parliament for the Front National.
However, Dambiņš himself strenuously denies that he has acted as an intermediary to help FN obtain loans from Russian banks, Re:Baltica notes.
LSM has previously noted the businessman's international connections in other stories.
It will come as no surprise that a complex system of offshore companies is involved. You can read the full story at the Re:Baltica website.
For our French readers, Mediapart.fr's version of the story is below.
Un conseiller de Poutine derrière l’argent russe du #FN. Révélations de @mediapart et @rebaltica https://t.co/pzV2EEXCbM pic.twitter.com/Zw5hacySyM
— Marine Turchi (@marineturchi) May 2, 2017
