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The next day, the American ambassador Yuri Kim will meet with the head of the Parliamentary Group of the SP Taulant Balla and that of the DP group, Enkelejd Alibeaj.
Sources for ABC inform that the meeting with Balla will take place at 10:30 at the Presidency of the Assembly, while with Alibeaj at 11:30. The focus of the visit will be the same as that of today’s meeting at the CEC.
Ambassador Kim, this morning met the central election commissioner Ilirian Celibashi at the CEC. Damian Gjiknuri, Jorida Tabaku and Monika Kryemadhi were also present at the meeting.
As journalist Esiona Konomi learned, Kim was in the CEC today for the DASH report on Russian money in Albanian parties. Russia has secretly given more than $300 million to political parties and candidates in dozens of countries since 2014, and President Putin has engaged in covert political financing around the world, according to a senior US official.
According to the official who spoke to the media, this is the conclusion reached by a report by the US intelligence community which analyzed Russia’s funding “in more than 24 countries over the past few years in an effort to manipulate democracies from within”.
According to a source with knowledge of the US intelligence report, Albania is one of these countries.
“In Albania, Russia gave about half a million dollars to the Democratic Party in 2017 through shell companies,” the US government source said.
The source did not provide further details on the case of Albania. But the year 2017, the name of the Democratic Party and the mentioned figure of 500 thousand dollars coincide with the investigations that were opened in Albania at that time against the DP based on the statements that the American lobbying firm ‘Muzin Capitol Partners’ reported that it received from the DP here.
/abcnews.al
