Russian Influence on the European Far Right

The Russian Loan (2014) – Where It All Began

Marine Le Pen's party, then the Front National, took out a €9.4 million loan from the Moscow-based First Czech-Russian Bank in autumn 2014. The bank's owner, Roman Popov, had previously worked for one of Putin's billionaire allies, Gennady Timchenko. The loan was brokered through MEP Jean-Luc Schaffhauser, who was openly working to build a "Russian-European Christian alliance."

The loan was exposed by the investigative outlet Mediapart barely two months after it was signed. The bank closed in 2016, and the loan passed through a series of dubious Russian companies: first to a car rental firm called Konti, and ultimately to Aviazapchast, an aircraft parts supplier that also serves the Syrian air force. The party repaid the remaining €6.1 million debt in 2023.

A French parliamentary committee of inquiry concluded in 2023 that the Rassemblement National had functioned as a "relay channel" for Russia in French politics, and that the party's positions consistently aligned with Kremlin messaging — particularly in supporting the annexation of Crimea and opposing sanctions against Russia.

The Hungarian Loan (2022) – MKB Bank, Lőrinc Mészáros

For the 2022 presidential campaign, Le Pen once again needed foreign financing after French banks continued to refuse her credit. This time, Hungary's MKB Bank provided her with a €10.7 million personal loan. MKB Bank's majority owner is Lőrinc Mészáros, Viktor Orbán's childhood friend and the wealthiest man in Hungary.

A Financial Times investigation revealed that Viktor Orbán personally instructed MKB's management to issue the loan, despite reluctance from both the bank's leadership and Mészáros himself. The prime ministerial intervention suggests the transaction was not merely a business decision but a political-strategic move to strengthen Orbán's European alliance system.

The Hotel Metropol Recording (2018)

One of the most dramatic pieces of evidence of Russian influence came to light in July 2019, when BuzzFeed News published a secret audio recording. The recording was made on October 18, 2018, at Moscow's Hotel Metropol, and captures Gianluca Savoini, a longtime trusted aide to Matteo Salvini, negotiating the covert financing of Italy's Lega party with three Russians and two other Italians.

The essence of the plan was for an unnamed Russian oil company (contextually likely Rosneft) to sell crude oil to Italy's state energy company Eni at a discount, with the savings — approximately $65 million over one year — secretly funneled into Lega's 2019 European Parliament election campaign.

On the recording, Savoini was explicit: their goal was to create a pro-Moscow European alliance involving Le Pen, Strache, and the AfD. The Milan prosecutor's office launched an investigation for suspected international corruption. Salvini consistently denied ever receiving any Russian money, although he was in Moscow at the time of the Metropol negotiation and reportedly met with Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak the previous evening. No evidence emerged that the deal was ever executed.

The Ibiza Scandal (2017/2019)

In May 2019, Der Spiegel and the Süddeutsche Zeitung released hidden camera footage showing Heinz-Christian Strache, then Vice Chancellor and FPÖ leader, along with his deputy Johann Gudenus, negotiating with a woman posing as the niece of a Russian oligarch at a villa in Ibiza. The footage was recorded in July 2017, just months before the Austrian parliamentary elections.

In the video, Strache offered government contracts to the undercover investor if she would purchase the Kronen Zeitung daily newspaper and build an FPÖ-friendly media environment — in his own words, one like "what Orbán built in Hungary." Strache and Gudenus resigned, the coalition government collapsed, and snap elections were called.

Although the recording was a sting operation (no real Russian investor was involved), the affair provided a staggering insight into the FPÖ's Russia-facing network of connections. In December 2016, the FPÖ had signed a formal cooperation agreement with Putin's United Russia party, and Gudenus had publicly endorsed the annexation of Crimea and characterized the EU as a "lobby for homosexuals" in a speech in Moscow.

The AfD and the Voice of Europe Network

Germany's Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) is one of the most important targets — and simultaneously one of the most important tools — of Russian influence in Europe. In 2024, scandals erupted in multiple waves: the AfD's lead candidate for the European Parliament, Maximilian Krah, was found to have received secret payments from both Russia and China, while his assistant was charged with spying for Chinese intelligence. Another senior candidate, Petr Bystron, was caught on audio recordings accepting €20,000 in cash from sanctioned Artem Marchevsky for spreading Russian propaganda.

Both cases lead to the Voice of Europe network, a Prague-based disinformation platform relaunched in 2023 under the direction of Viktor Medvedchuk, the exiled Ukrainian oligarch and Putin confidant, with the assistance of the FSB's (Russian Federal Security Service) so-called Fifth Directorate. The network distributed up to one million euros per month to far-right politicians across at least five EU member states, paying them to spread Russian propaganda and undermine solidarity with Ukraine.

According to Thomas Haldenwang, head of Germany's domestic intelligence service, "Russian narratives spread by parts of the AfD are contributing to the expansion of right-wing extremism" in Germany.

Vox and MBH Bank: Orbán-Linked Financing

In September 2024, following reporting by El País, the Vox party led by Santiago Abascal admitted that it had financed its 2023 municipal and parliamentary election campaigns with a €9.2 million loan from Hungary's MBH Bank. The loan arrived in two installments: €6.7 million for the parliamentary elections and €2.6 million for the municipal elections.

MBH Bank is Hungary's second-largest bank, 30.5% state-owned, with an additional approximately 50% held by companies and individuals linked to Lőrinc Mészáros. The party spokesperson justified the Hungarian loan by claiming Spanish banks had refused to extend credit.

Spain's Socialist Party (PSOE) filed charges against Vox in December 2024, arguing that concealing the loan source violated Spanish party financing law, which prohibits entities linked to foreign governments from funding political parties. The Spanish prosecutor's office has launched an investigation. The Hungarian government denied playing any role in the transaction.