Summary
Russian efforts to influence European elections have received plenty of media attention. But the same cannot be said of interference by conservative Christian groups based in the United States, some with links to President Donald Trump's administration and his ex-adviser, Stephen Bannon.As a recent report by openDemocracy has found, America's religious right spent at least $50 million on "dark money" campaigns and advocacy in Europe over the past decade.
In the first analysis of its kind, openDemocracy examined the financial records of leading U.S. Christian organizations and found that several have been increasing their spending in Europe significantly.
The largest spender of all appears to be the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, which dispensed over $20 million from 2008 to 2014 (the last year for which data are available for this organization).
Following the release of the openDemocracy report, a cross-party group of 40 members of the European Parliament sent a letter to the European Council, the European Commission and the European Parliament demanding that further action be taken to protect the upcoming elections "against nefarious outside influences".
That is why European leaders are focusing on preventing or neutralizing Russian machinations.
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