The anti-Russia hysteria that has raged in the US for just over a year now appeared poised to spread to the UK last week after British media learned that three past or present Foreign Office ministers - including Boris Johnson - had been targeted by FBI agents in their investigations into George Papadopoulos and Carter Page. The reports aroused suspicions that the ‘Leave’ campaign may have taken money indirectly from the Russian government. Of course, the idea that Russian efforts - part of a three-dimensional Russian plot to diminish the UK’s international influence - managed to sway the vote in favor of Brexit is just as ludicrous as the notion that $100,000 in Facebook promoted posts managed to throw the election to Trump.
And as if to underscore this point, Nigel Farage delivered a speech at the European Parliament - where he represents South East England - pointing out that George Soros’ Open Society Foundation has far more influence on elections across the Europe and the US. And if investigators are looking for evidence of foreign influence, they should start there. After all, George Soros recently signed over most of his assets - some $18 billion worth - to his OSF, which oversees a network of dozens of organizations across Europe.
George Soros has spent billions in the EU to undermine the nation state. This is where the real international political collusion is. pic.twitter.com/ANXOII7SFY
— Nigel Farage (@Nigel_Farage) November 14, 2017
And what is this money used for? Soros’ nonprofits have one mission: To promote a globalist agenda of open borders, free trade and liberal democratic values.
Speaking to the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Tuesday, Farage told fellow MEPs he believes that when it comes to international collusion, “we are looking in the wrong place.” He says Soros’ influence in Brussels is “truly extraordinary,”adding: “I fear we could be looking at the biggest level of international, political collusion in history," according to Russia Today.
Farage, the leader of the Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy group in the European Parliament, believes Soros has spent billions in the EU to undermine the nation state. “When we are talking about offshore money, when we are talking about political subversion, when we are talking about collusion, I wonder if we are looking in the wrong place.
“And I say that because George Soros recently gave Open Society, which of course campaigns for freedom of movement of people and supranational structures like the European Union, $18 billion. And his influence here and in Brussels is truly extraordinary."
Open Society says it held 42 meetings in 2016 with the European Commission, and has published lists of reliable “friends” in the European Parliament. Farage pointed out that there are 226 names on the list, he says. He told those MEPs he would be writing to them to establish whether they had accepted money or help from Soros.
“If we’re going to have a debate, and talk about full, political and financial transparency, well let’s do it. So I shall be writing today to all 226 of you, asking some pretty fair questions: Have you ever received funds directly or indirectly from Open Society? How many of their events have you attended? Could you please give us a list of all the representatives including George Soros?”
Last week, the electoral commission opened an investigation into whether the Leave campaign took offshore money, Farage pointed out. However, in a twist that’s sure to arouse suspicion, the investigation was opened following a request in the House of Commons from a Ben Bradshaw, an affiliate of Open Society.
Finally, since authorities seem intent on investigating any Russian influence in the vote to leave the European Union, Farage demanded that the European Parliament set up a special committee to look into the issue. “I say this at a time when the use of money and the implications it may have had on the Brexit result or the Trump election has reached virtual hysteria."
Now that he has mostly retired from investing, Soros spends his days feuding with the leaders of mid-sized Eastern European states like Hungary, where he and President Viktor Orban are engaged in a PR battle over the future of a country that Orban has led further and further to the right as a surge of migrants have poured over the European border from Africa and the Middle East.