The World Congress of Families is mentioned in this write-up of the new recording linking Italian far-right to Russia: nytimes.com/2019/07/10/wor…
We've written extensively about the World Congress of Family's ties in/to Russia over the past year—among the highlights:
1. Looking through the Americans who spoke at this year's WCF conference, including Clarence Thomas's former clerk: thinkprogress.org/here-are-the-a…
2. How the WCF's Russian representative schmoozed with Ben Carson: thinkprogress.org/why-was-ben-ca…
3. How the same WCF Russian representative grew close to the U.S.'s leading far-right homeschool organization: thinkprogress.org/americas-bigge…
4. How the same WCF Russian representative (who works directly for Konstantin Malofeev, still sanctioned by the U.S.) built up links with the biggest U.S. far-right "Christian film" organization: thinkprogress.org/how-russia-inf…
5. And we got the diary of the WCF's American founder, from his first trip to Russia, detailing what they hoped to achieve—and how they'd do it. thinkprogress.org/history-of-chr…
There are at least three Russian figures sanctioned by the US and/or EU who are close to the WCF:
—Yelena Mizulina
—Vladimir Yakunin
—Konstantin Malofeev (whose employee, Alexey Komov, is the direct WCF Russian representative)
'The Metropol tape provides the first hard evidence of Russia’s clandestine attempts to fund Europe’s nationalist movements, and the apparent complicity of some senior figures from the far right in those attempts.' buzzfeednews.com/article/albert…
'Opposition lawmakers in Italy demanded Thursday Salvini appear in Parliament about allegations that a covert Russian oil sale scheme was devised to fund his pro-Moscow League party.' apnews.com/dc82b4d439cf4c…
NEW: One of the alleged figures behind the secret Russia payment scheme to the Italian far-right also happens to be the main contact for a number of American Christian fundamentalist groups. thinkprogress.org/world-congress…
There's plenty in this on Alexey Komov, and his efforts to cozy up to American Christian fundamentalist groups.
Komov's somehow managed to escape sanctions thus far—though his boss hasn't.
This video of Komov speaking before Salvini's far-right party a few years ago is unintentionally hilarious, mainly because it ends with Komov yelling, "PUTIN!"
'One problem: There's a long trail of photos, videos and social media posts stretching back many years, which point to the closeness of their relationship.' buzzfeednews.com/article/albert…
ICYMI
'Salvini long denied that Savoini was a member of his official delegation to Moscow that July. But these denials were directly contradicted by Italian prime minister Giuseppe Conte during a parliamentary debate about the Metropol meeting last month.' bellingcat.com/news/2019/08/0…
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