TIRANA, September 14 – The revelation that the Democratic Party (DP) received $500,000 from Russia, as part of a $300mn- fund covertly spent to influence politicians and officials in over 20 countries, including Albania, in the last eight years has caused an upheaval on the political scene of Albania.
Albania’s opposition Democrats said on Wednesday that they will probe an allegation the party received $500,000 from Russia, as part of hundreds of millions of dollars the US State Department said were directed by Moscow at foreign political parties and individuals.
A source within the US administration quoted by AFP said that Moscow had spent around $500,000 to support Albania’s Democratic Party in the 2017 general elections.
The Democratic Party’s current leader, Sali Berisha, who has been sanctioned by the US for ‘significant corruption’, accused the party’s former leader Lulzim Basha of being personally responsible for the alleged Russian funding in a Facebook post on September 14.
“The Democratic Party declares that, after becoming aware of indications that spoke of a Russian financing, it has publicly denounced this personal act of Lulzim Basha … The Democratic Party will ask its forums to set up a working group to undertake a detailed audit under the direction of a Special Commission,” Berisha said.
“We consider the financial intervention for malignant interests, which contradict the national interest of Albania and its Western orientation, to be a flagrant violation of the country’s sovereignty, by an aggressor who is washing the friendly people of Ukraine in blood,” Berisha noted.
Basha stepped down as party leader after the Democrats’ defeat in local elections in early 2022, opening the way for Berisha to return as party leader.
The 2017 election in which the state department source claimed to AFP that Russia had backed the Democrats resulted in a heavy defeat for the party in the hands of Prime Minister Edi Rama’s Socialists.
At a media briefing on September 13, US State Department spokesman Ned Price called Russian interference in foreign elections an “assault on sovereignty”.
“What Russia is doing around the world in terms of its election meddling is also an assault on sovereignty. It is an effort to chip away at the ability of people around the world to choose the government that they see best fit to represent them, to represent their interests, to represent their values,” said Price, according to a transcript of the briefing.
While he did not provide many further details, he outlined the reasons why the State Department released the information. /argumentum.al with newswires
