Russia has secretly given more than $300 million to political parties and candidates in dozens of countries since 2014, and President Putin has engaged in covert political financing around the world, according to a senior US official.
According to the official who spoke to the media, this is the conclusion reached by a report by the US intelligence community which analyzed Russia’s funding “in more than 24 countries over the past few years in an effort to manipulate democracies from within”.
According to a source with knowledge of the US intelligence report, Albania is one of these countries.
“In Albania, Russia gave about half a million dollars to the Democratic Party in 2017 through shell companies,” the US government source said.
The source did not provide further details on the case of Albania.
But the year 2017, the name of the Democratic Party and the mentioned figure of 500 thousand dollars coincide with the investigations that were opened in Albania at that time against the DP based on the statements that the American lobbying firm ‘Muzin Capitol Partners’ reported that it received from the DP here.
The American lobbying firm had declared in 2018 to the US Department of Justice that it had received a total of three payments, in the amount of 675 thousand dollars, for its work in favor of the Democratic Party in 2017.
The first payment is dated March 24, 2017 and was made by the firm “Biniatta Trade LP”, with a value of 150 thousand dollars, the other two payments, according to the declaration, were made by the Democratic Party, one on March 27, for 25 thousand dollars, and the other on June 9 for $500,000.
In a long investigative article about these payments to Muzin Capitol, the American magazine Mother Jones raised suspicions that after part of the payments made by the company “Biniatta Trade LP” based in Scotland, for lobbying activities in favor of the DP before the elections of 2016 in Albania, there were Russian businessmen.
Muzin’s statements to the Department of Justice state that the payment was made by the Democratic Party. However, the figure of 500,000 dollars appears in the contract with Biniatta and not with PD, according to Mother Jones.
The Albanian authorities opened investigations related to these payments, saying that “the money was paid by an offshore company and that the Democratic Party has not regularly reported to the Central Election Commission the money spent, thus avoiding the prevention legislation of money laundering”.
Then the prosecution withdrew from the charge of money laundering and the Court dismissed the case filed for falsification of documents against Lulzim Basha, Arben Ristan and Ilir Dervishaj regarding the payments to the firm Muzin.
The former chairman of the Democratic Party, Lulzim Basha, gave different explanations for the 500,000 dollar payment, saying at first that it was given by the Albanian-Americans, but then he said that “What did the lobbyist do and how did he do it?” the lobbyist knows it. They are relations of the Muzin company with third parties”.
Apart from Albania, according to the source of the American administration, Bosnia and Montenegro are also mentioned in the report, respectively for financing the campaign of the leader of the Bosnian Serbs, Milorak Dodik for the 2018 elections and funds for the pro-Russian Democratic Front party.
The US official told the media that the United States has engaged with allies and partners to gather more information about the risk of Russian funding for political parties.
“What is most shocking about this study is that we see the presence of covert Russian funding around the world… We are warning these foreign parties and candidates if they secretly accept Russian money. We have the opportunity to expose them, and we will expose them”, he added.
