No one outside the Bruges Group actually knows who funds them as they don't publish data on this. But recent talking points, narratives, and memes that they attempt to push, map onto a pattern of subtle Russian shilling rather too neatly.
The group has a long history, being set up in 1989 as a relatively legitimate anti-Maastricht pressure group, with funding from various businessmen, including James Hanson, Lord White, James Goldsmith, Rocco Forte and Patrick Barbour. However, in recent years, the group has been far more cagey about where the cash comes from.
This may be because of its recent direction. Like a lot of things we have seen in Europe in the last decade or so, the general strategy seems to be to emphasise and exacerbate divisions in Europe, the EU, and NATO through the promotion of trad, Christian, NIMBYist nationalist-style parties in each country. The Little Englander mentality and sleazy funding channels of the Bruges Group would slotted right into this. It is probable that it was co-opted, to some degree, to a Kremlin agenda from around 2014, or maybe earlier.
What alerted me to this possibility was how "over-involved" the group on Twitter seemed to be in Polish politics. This follows the defeat of the Eurosceptic Law and Justice Party and the election of the pro-EU and pro-NATO Donald Tusk as Prime Minister of Poland last year.
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The ERG (European Research Group) is less likely to be tied to Russia, and probably has its own financial reasons for its hard Brexit stance. EU legislation was going to stop the use of tax havens that would have caused problems for certain Tories and their friends. Jacob Rees-Mogg's Somerset Capital Management, as is well-known, is managed via subsidiaries in the Cayman Islands and Singapore.
In many ways the ERG is a modern version of what the Bruges Group was back in its 90s heyday.
It is funded by Eurosceptic MPs paying £2000 a year, which they later claim back on their taxes. Effectively it is funded by the UK taxpayer. But there is also additional "dark money" funding that remains largely in the dark as the group keeps a separate bank account for private donations. This is the most likely source of possible Russian influence.
One bright spot in the dark money shadows, is the Constitutional Research Council, itself a dubious organisation that seems to have a lot of mystery money. The CRC has funded the ERG in the past. For example, in December 2016, the CRC gave £6,500 to the ERG's then chairman Steve Baker for a Christmas party!
It is funded by Eurosceptic MPs paying £2000 a year, which they later claim back on their taxes. Effectively it is funded by the UK taxpayer. But there is also additional "dark money" funding that remains largely in the dark as the group keeps a separate bank account for private donations. This is the most likely source of possible Russian influence.
One bright spot in the dark money shadows, is the Constitutional Research Council, itself a dubious organisation that seems to have a lot of mystery money. The CRC has funded the ERG in the past. For example, in December 2016, the CRC gave £6,500 to the ERG's then chairman Steve Baker for a Christmas party!
No one on the outside knows where the CRC's money comes from, but it is fronted by a Scottish Conservative called Richard Cook who has some rather business odd business associates and experiences.
Cook dumped at least one very large sum into British politics in a way that looks totally inorganic. During the Brexit campaign in 2016, he gave the Northern Irish DUP £435,000, most of which was spent on ads in the Metro newspaper, which doesn't even run copies in Northern Ireland.
Cook dumped at least one very large sum into British politics in a way that looks totally inorganic. During the Brexit campaign in 2016, he gave the Northern Irish DUP £435,000, most of which was spent on ads in the Metro newspaper, which doesn't even run copies in Northern Ireland.
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