Albania among targets of covert Russian political funding, U.S. report says
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- The country's main opposition Democratic Party received half a million dollars from Russian sources in 2017, according to U.S. intelligence report,
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TIRANA, Sept. 14, 2022 – Albania was among the targets of covert Russian political funding, according to a U.S. intelligence report and various officials who spoke to international media.
The country’s main opposition Democratic Party received half a million dollars from Russian sources in 2017, the reports noted.
The Albania link is part of a larger effort that has seen Russia has secretly given more than $300 million to political parties and candidates in dozens of countries since 2014, engaging in covert political financing around the world. Other countries in the region included Bosnia and Montenegro.
According to officials who spoke to the media, the U.S. intelligence community came up with a report after analyzing Russia’s funding in more than 24 countries over the past few years in an effort to manipulate democracies from within.
“In Albania, Russia gave about half a million dollars to the Democratic Party in 2017 through shell companies,” the U.S. government sources told the AFP wire service.
The accusations that the Democratic Party took $500,000 from a UK shell company with ties to Russia are not new. The money was used to pay an American lobbying firm which disclosed the data as it is obligated to, and then the ties appeared in a U.S. magazine article.
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 not following legislation.”
Following an investigation, Albania’s prosecutors withdrew criminal charges and the court dismissed the case against three DP officials Lulzim Basha, Arben Ristan and Ilir Dervishaj, who were involved with the payments to the American lobbying firm.
Basha has since resigned as head of the party, and the current leadership said it would undertake a detailed audit to make sure there is no doubt as to the Euro-Atlantic orientation of the party, indicating the blame lies with the former leader, who has denied any wrongdoing.
DP leader Sali Berisha, told media at an event in Shijak that he had seen the reports on international media about the Democratic Party, then led by Basha, receiving covert funding from Russia and that the matter requires transparency and a thorough inquiry, adding that during the years of Basha’s leadership, PD was “introduced to labyrinths similar to those seen in mafia films.”
However, former DP leader Basha responded on Twitter by saying: “The Democratic Party has never received foreign funding, let alone from Russia. When such claims were made public in the media, the Democratic Party publicly requested that the justice system investigate them and completely cooperated with the justice system, which denied any claim of foreign funding.”
Basha had previously said the money in question was from Albanian American donors.
“We are proud of the steadfast partnership with our strategic ally, the United States, and determined to move forward alongside our Euro-Atlantic allies for the consolidation of Western values and the full integration of Albania into the EU,” Basha added in his statement.
