Marine Le Pen party’s security adviser is an alleged Russian agent
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Marine Le Pen’s National Rally is under fire over a former model and alleged Russian “agent of influence” who is now an adviser to the party as it looks to form France’s next government.
Tamara Volokhova, 34, is causing the hard-Right party particular embarrassment because it has vowed to ban dual-national immigrants from key jobs if it comes to power.
During a live TV debate on Tuesday, before parliamentary elections start this weekend, Jordan Bardella, the would-be National Rally (RN) prime minister, said: “Would you put a Franco-Russian in charge of a nuclear power plant? Don’t you think that’s a subject of national interest?”
Gabriel Attal, the incumbent prime minister of France, replied by naming Ms Volokhova, a Moscow model turned security adviser to the RN in the European Parliament, and a former personal assistant to Ms Le Pen.
Ms Volokhova became a French citizen in 2020 despite a leaked report from the DGSI, France’s domestic intelligence service, that identified her as a suspected “agent of influence” working for Vladimir Putin’s Russia.
Mr Attal told Mr Bardella: “It turns out that she is Franco-Russian, that she attends closed-door meetings with confidential information on the war in Ukraine.”
Mr Bardella replied: “We’re not talking about a nuclear power plant here.”
Earlier in 2024, Ms Le Pen published a proposed law that would prevent dual-nationals from holding a wide range of jobs across the civil service, companies and public service missions.
Such bills could now be enshrined if the RN – which is leading opinion polls – ends up with an absolute majority in the Paris National Assembly following the parliamentary elections.
Gérald Darmanin, the French interior minister, said on Wednesday that the RN’s proposed policy was discriminatory and would “divide the nation”.
He said: “I don’t like this way of filtering the French.” He said it would discredit “three million French-Americans, French-Algerians, French-Portuguese, French-Moroccans”.
Ms Le Pen, who paid a personal visit to Putin in Moscow in 2017, has long been criticised for her support of Russia.
Her party received a €6 million (£5 million) loan from a Russian company in 2014, which has since been paid back.
Responding in 2022 to claims that the RN was closely tied to the Moscow regime, Ms Le Pen said: “I have no friendship with Vladimir Putin, whom I met once in my life. I don’t even have financial ties with him.”
