
The chairman of DP, Sali Berisha, has given details about the financing of DP with 500 thousand dollars from Russia. According to him, in 2018, Ambassador Donald Lu brought to my office a file with an article from the Mother Jones newspaper about Russian funding of Nick Muzin to lobby for Basha and DP.
Berisha accuses Basha that from the information he has, a large part of the payments that the former president of the Democratic Party made, did not go through the coffers and funds of the Democratic Party.
“In 2018, Ambassador Donald Lu brought to my office a file with a Mother Jones newspaper article about Russian funding of Nick Muzin to lobby for Basha and DP. In the file, apart from the article and the sheet that Nick Muzin was registered as Basha's lobbyist, there was no other document about this affair.
Basha, when asked by me what it is, stated that the money paid to Nick Muzin was collected in accordance with the rules and that the article has nothing true. Between the newspaper article and Basha's statement, I believed the latter version.
Later I was made aware that the Muzin file was being held hostage and the case against him was closed in court with the intervention of Agac, where the prosecutor did not appeal the case to the Supreme Court. I have denounced this from pulpit to pulpit. Later I was informed that Basha had cheated and had not collected funds in the diaspora.
After this information, I thought that the source of the money could be Russian. On April 14, 2022, I denounced before you in Parliament the Russian financing of Basha and the closing of the Russian file by Edi Rama. The return of this issue by referring to high officials proves what I have denounced dozens of times that Basha is being held hostage with this file and must urgently answer the source of the money.
From the information I have, a large part of the payments that Basha made did not go through the coffers and DP funds. For this reason, the responsibility is individual of Basha, of course as far as he represents and those involved in these transactions. From this affair of the former chairman of the Democratic Party and vowing that we will set up an audit commission to ensure full transparency, we request the opening of a full investigation to remove any doubt that connects the Democratic Party with Russian funds. I guarantee the Albanians that PD has been and is and will remain the party of national interest", said Berisha.