EXCLUSIVE — A little-known yet well-connected group run by a Texas lawyer has spent the last four years jet-setting around the world to foster connections between the Republican Party and segments of the European Right that harbor pro-Russian sympathies.
Tax documents obtained by the Washington Examiner indicate that, for much of this time, the group, Republicans for National Renewal, reported to the IRS that it had brought in relatively little revenue, raising questions about who paid for its vast travel and event expenses. After being reached by the Washington Examiner, the organization’s executive director said that, while the group has not directly accepted foreign donations, foreign entities have paid its travel expenses.
RNR was founded in February 2020 with the stated purpose of advancing a platform of “nationalism and populism” inspired by President Donald Trump. Since then, the organization has succeeded multiple times in uniting people at the very top of the GOP, including House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and several other members of Congress, with European politicians belonging to parties that, to varying degrees, support Russian interests.
A Greenland-shaped cake and a series of meetings
In January, RNR held an event that, in many ways, exemplifies how it operates.
Renting the entire Roof Terrace Restaurant at the Kennedy Center, RNR brought together multiple members of Congress and European conservatives with pro-Russia bona fides. At the event, which featured a Greenland-shaped cake, Reps. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL), Andy Ogles (R-TN), and Abe Hamadeh (R-AZ) rubbed shoulders with the likes of Romanian politician George Simion, who critics have accused of advancing the Kremlin’s interests; delegates from his Alliance for the Union of Romanian party; and at least one member of the Russia-friendly Serbian government.
This is just one instance of many wherein RNR managed to get powerful Republicans into the same room as European conservatives with affinities for Russia. Other examples include the group “facilitating” Rep. Barry Moore’s (R-AL) attendance at CPAC Hungary, an event held with the support of the nation’s ruling pro-Moscow Fidesz party, and bringing a leader of the Kremlin-friendly Freedom Party of Austria to speak on a panel with Hamadeh at a 2022 conservative conference.
RNR’s success in bridging the American and European Right didn’t happen overnight. Since its foundation, the group has invested considerable effort into traveling across the Atlantic to build relationships with European conservatives.
In May 2022, RNR announced that it would be hosting “the first ever in-person summit between European national-populist parties and their populist Young Republican counterparts” in Budapest. This “Trans-Atlantic Patriot Summit” included youth representatives from Italy’s Lega, Hungary’s Fidesz, France’s National Rally, the Freedom Party of Austria, and Belgium’s Vlaams Belang — each of which had reported ties to Moscow at the time. This summit eventually became an annual event held by the organization.
Since then, RNR’s U.S.-based staff has traveled across Europe and had dozens of meetings with European politicians belonging to parties aligned with the Kremlin such as Alternative für Deutschland, Bulgaria’s Vazrazhdane, Czechia’s ANO, Turkey’s Justice and Development Party, France’s National Rally, Italy’s Lega, the Slovak Republic Movement, Georgia’s People Power party, and the Latvia First party, the Washington Examiner found.
Big events and small revenues
With its high-profile events and considerable international travel, the question naturally arises: How is RNR paying for all this?
At the time of the Kennedy Center event, RNR had only made public its tax returns from 2020 and 2021, both of which indicate that the organization brought in less than $50,000 each year.
RNR initially did not respond when the Washington Examiner reached out in January to request its most recent tax filings. When the Washington Examiner reached out to the group again in late February, reminding it of its obligation to provide the documents upon request, RNR Executive Director Mark Ivanyo produced the organization’s filings for 2022 and 2023, which reported less than $50,000 in revenue for each of those years.
Ivanyo, however, declined to provide the organization’s 2024 filing, stating that it “was submitted incorrectly and is being corrected” and promising to provide it within a week. While the Washington Examiner was never provided with a copy of the 2024 filing, Ivanyo stated that his group brought in less than $50,000 that year as well.
Despite its meager reported fundraising between 2020 and 2024, social media posts indicate the group traveled multiple times to Hungary, France, Belgium, Portugal, Italy, Germany, Slovakia, and Bulgaria during that period — which, between flights and lodging, likely cost the group considerably.
When asked by the Washington Examiner whether RNR had ever accepted in-kind support from a foreign entity, Ivanyo answered affirmatively that he has “had travel covered for foreign speaking engagements.” He denied any foreign contributions to the group’s general fund, however.
On top of its rental of the Kennedy Center’s exclusive rooftop restaurant, RNR has made a number of other expenditures that appear excessive for a group with only thousands of dollars in reported revenue.
Between 2021 and 2024, for example, the group held annual Christmas parties in Arizona, as well as multiple receptions in Florida and other states, attended by high-profile conservatives, sponsored CPAC Texas, secured a booth at CPAC Dallas, paid for a booth at Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest, sponsored an afterparty associated with Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast, spoke and rented booths at Texas Youth Summits, sponsored a rally followed by a mixer in Michigan, rented a restaurant for an event outside CPAC’s national conference, and spoke at the College Republicans of America’s convention in Las Vegas.
“During 2025, we received a large donation from a conservative New York donor,” Ivanyo said, explaining how the group afforded the Kennedy Center event. “We have also engaged fundraising consultants, which has led to an increase in grassroots donations, for which we are very grateful. Prior to the large donation, the officers of RNR largely paid for their own travel. Additionally, RNR has not and does not pay salaries to any of its officers or board members. Lastly, most RNR events held around the country generate funds for the organization through ticket sales and therefore pay for themselves and allow us to host booths at major conferences.”
Ivanyo disclosed that RNR would be filing a traditional Form 990 for its 2025 tax year, indicating that the group had brought in more than $50,000.
Moscow-aligned positions
All of RNR’s spending seems to have produced results.
RNR has snagged a number of exclusive meetings with Republican lawmakers. These included private audiences in the offices of Ogles, Hamadeh, and Rep. Brandon Gill (R-TX), as well as less formal discussions with Reps. Darrell Issa (R-CA), Andy Harris (R-MD), Cory Mills (R-FL), Wesley Hunt (R-TX), and Troy Nehls (R-TX). Reps. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) and Mike Collins (R-GA) and senior Trump administration official Kari Lake, meanwhile, attended private events hosted by RNR. Ogles joined the group for an X space discussing the possibility of a third Trump term.
The meetings and relationships provide RNR an avenue to discuss its policy preferences, including those related to foreign policy, with some of the most powerful people in the country.
While some European conservatives shy away from the pro-Russian moniker, RNR has expressed positions that align with those of Moscow.
Among other points, RNR has implied on multiple occasions that Ukraine is trying to kill Trump, advocated against sanctions on Moscow, celebrated Lake’s attempt to dismantle Radio Free Europe following its history of critical reporting on the Kremlin, demanded Russia be allowed back into the G8, regularly criticized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, claimed that Ukraine is funding anti-Trump protests, accused Ukraine of faking civilian deaths, consistently come out against providing aid to Ukraine, and called on the United States to leave NATO — a move that critics say would leave Eastern Europe to the whims of the Russians.
“RNR takes no official stance on relations with Russia, but individual members have their own personal views,” Ivanyo told the Washington Examiner. “As an America First organization, we are against major foreign powers, including but not limited to Arab states, Russia, or China, buying up strategic infrastructure in the United States. During trips to Europe and Latin America, we met with politicians who are supportive of President Trump. As you noted, their views on Russia can vary.”
Some of the European conservatives with whom RNR has made inroads explicitly oppose Russia. Spain’s Vox and the Sweden Democrats, both of whom RNR have expressed support for and met with, fall into this camp.
That said, the bulk of the European politicians RNR has sought to befriend belong to parties with at least some affinity for Moscow.
Though conservatives in the U.S. have largely grown numb to criticism of their stances on Russia, many of the parties RNR seeks to connect the GOP with are relatively open about their alignment with the Kremlin.
In November 2023, for instance, RNR met with the leader of Bulgaria’s Vazrazhdane party to discuss “peace in Ukraine” while visiting the country’s capital. Shortly thereafter, RNR and Vazrazhdane released a joint statement expressing their ideological alignment.
Vazrazhdane’s ties to Moscow are strong, with the party having signed a cooperation pact with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s United Russia in 2025.
Vazrazhdane advocates Bulgaria’s exit from NATO and the European Union to facilitate a return to Russia’s sphere of influence. Kostadin Kostadinov, whom RNR met with, spoke at a demonstration in March 2022 where Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov was pelted with snowballs as anti-Western protesters waved Russian flags and chanted pro-Russian slogans.
RNR has also met with several politicians affiliated with Alternative for Germany, an ascendant right-wing party that has seen increasingly strong showings in recent elections. AfD broadly supports closer ties between Russia and Germany while opposing support for Ukraine and expressing skepticism toward alignment with the West. Germany’s domestic security service has accused AfD of spreading Russian narratives, and scores of reports from news agencies have alleged ties between members of the party and Russian operatives.
The Freedom Party of Austria, one of the parties RNR met with most frequently, has historically been open about its alignment with Russia. In 2016, the party signed a cooperation pact with Russia’s ruling party. Since then, the party has opposed sanctions against Russia and military aid to Ukraine.
A regular presence at conservative conferences
Perhaps the most important party in the nexus surrounding RNR is Hungary’s Fidesz. The party and its leader, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, have been major players in efforts to forge alliances between American and European conservatives. It may be no surprise that RNR has been a consistent presence at CPAC Hungary, a hub for this movement.
Fidesz also has a distinct, pro-Russian slant.
Under the party’s leadership, Hungary was the only EU member state to vote against aid for Ukraine as it faced Russian-backed rebels in 2019 and has since worked to derail efforts aimed at admitting Kyiv to the EU and NATO. While the country denounced the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, it has opposed military aid to Ukraine and criticized sanctions against Moscow.
Orban and Putin have a long-running, friendly relationship, with the former often praising the latter. Last week, Putin released two Hungarian prisoners of war ahead of key elections, an overture that was seen as an effort to help Fidesz’s shaky electoral prospects.
RNR shows no signs of slowing down its efforts to forge trans-Atlantic conservative alliances.
Ivanyo, the group’s director, met Orban in April 2024, marking at least the second time the two had spoken. That year, Ivanyo traveled extensively, meeting right-wing, and at times Russian-friendly, conservatives from France, Germany, Latvia, Hungary, Czechia, Greece, and Romania. The following year, his organization met with conservatives in Serbia, Moldova, Spain, Turkey, and Georgia. Ivanyo presented a replica gun as a gift to Simion in 2024, highlighting the close relationship the group shares with the Romanian, whom the Institute for the Study of War says “could advance the Kremlin’s objectives.”’
Additionally, the group has become a regular presence at conservative conferences, such as those organized by CPAC and Turning Point USA, highlighting its efforts to gain import within the American Right.
On Monday, Johnson delivered remarks at an event co-sponsored by RNR dubbed the “Alliance of Sovereign Nations” summit. The House speaker was joined by Reps. Byron Donalds (R-FL), Randy Fine (R-FL), and Luna. Many of the conference’s European attendees are from parties that RNR has spent the past four years cultivating relationships with. Among them were AfD, the Freedom Party of Austria, Vlaams Belang, and Simion’s AUR.
Ivanyo also spoke at the conference, referring to Luna as a “good friend.”
CHINESE MONEY SEEPS INTO EVERY LEVEL OF AMERICAN POLITICS
AfD deputy Markus Frohnmaier was one of the advertised headliners of the event. The Russian government once endeavored to support Frohnmaier, predicting that he would be under its “absolute control” if elected to the German legislature in 2017, according to leaked documents reported on by four European news agencies.
The offices of Johnson, Hamadeh, Luna, Ogles, and Moore did not respond to requests for comment.
