Politician Stepaņenko's family reportedly friendly with Russian arms dealer Bout

Jūlija Stepaņenko, the lead candidate on the electoral list of the political party “Sovereign Power/Union of New Latvians” and candidate for the post of Prime Minister, has declared substantial gifts of money and property from her father, who lives in Russia. The total value of the two gifts is almost 420,000 euros. In an interview with the LETA news agency a week ago, she refused to explain the origin of the funds given to her by her father. This week, on the LTV programme “What’s Happening in Latvia?”, the politician revealed that her father works in the construction business in Russia, but on the pre-election programme “Party in Focus”, she refused to give any details about his construction company.