“It is without hesitation that I call on the French to vote for Emmanuel Macron on April 24, but I would like to address those who do not rule out voting for Marine Le Pen.” In a series of tweets, the Russian opponent to Vladimir Putin, Alexeï Navalny, calls this Wednesday to vote for the outgoing president in the second round.
Above all, he accuses the National Rally of compromising with the head of the Kremlin. Imprisoned in Russia since January 2021, Navalny says to himself “shocked” the loan of 9 million euros contracted in 2014 by the former National Front party from a Russian bank: “It’s bribery. And this is a sale of political influence to Putin.”
8/18 This bank is a well-known money laundering agency that was created at the instigation of Putin. Would you like it if a French politician got a loan from Cosa Nostra? Well, that’s the same.
— Alexey Navalny (@navalny) April 20, 2022
The RN continues to repay this loan which was initially taken out in 2014 with the First Czech-Russian Bank (FCBR), closed in 2016. The debt had been sold to a Russian car rental company, Conti, then resold to Aviazaptchast , a firm run by former Russian soldiers.
“This bank (FCBR) is a well-known money laundering agency that was established at Putin’s instigation. Would you like it if a French politician got a loan from Cosa Nostra? notably launched the activist, who built his notoriety with his investigations into the networks of corruption of the Russian elite. To justify having turned to a Russian financial institution, the FN accuses him, the French banks of not granting him loans at the material time.
Considered the main opponent of Vladimir Putin, Navalny suffered in Russia in 2020 in serious poisoning for which he holds the Kremlin responsible. The latter denies but has never opened an investigation. In March, he was sentenced to nine years in prison for “scam”. His organizations have been banned for “extremism” in 2021.
“Completely immoral”
At the start of his career, at the end of the 2000s, Alexeï Navalny had approached Russian nationalists critical of the Kremlin. He also had controversial remarks against immigration. “I have been criticized a lot for this, but I believe that my ability to speak with people with different political opinions is my advantage”, he assures, still via Twitter.
He also attacked the “European Right” having sympathy for the Russian president. “Putin and his political elite are completely immoral, they despise family values, he believes. Having a second and even a third family, mistresses and yachts is the norm for them.