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Marine Le Pen's National Front used a Latvian asset manager with links to an EU-blacklisted Russian senator to try to broker more Kremlin loans. (Photo: European Parliament)

Investigation

How Le Pen's party brokered Russian loans

A Latvian fixer has emerged as an intermediary between Marine Le Pen and her Russian sponsors.

The French presidential candidate’s men met twice with Vilis Dambins, an asset manager who works out of a small office in Riga city centre, to broker loans from Kremlin-linked lenders, according to a new investigation.

A Dambins-linked firm also paid €250,000 to a think tank linked to a Le Pen MEP, according to the investigation by Latvian and French journalists from Re:Baltica and Medi...

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Author Bio

Andrew Rettman is EUobserver's foreign editor, writing about foreign and security issues since 2005. He is Polish, but grew up in the UK, and lives in Brussels. He has also written for The Guardian, The Times of London, and Intelligence Online.

Marine Le Pen's National Front used a Latvian asset manager with links to an EU-blacklisted Russian senator to try to broker more Kremlin loans. (Photo: European Parliament)

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Author Bio

Andrew Rettman is EUobserver's foreign editor, writing about foreign and security issues since 2005. He is Polish, but grew up in the UK, and lives in Brussels. He has also written for The Guardian, The Times of London, and Intelligence Online.

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