After meeting Putin, Le Pen says if elected will mull lifting Russia sanctions

MOSCOW — France’s far-right presidential candidate Marien Le Pen said Friday that if she is elected, she will mull the swift lifting of sanctions imposed by the European Union on Moscow over the Ukraine crisis.

Putin held a surprise meeting Friday with the Front National leader, yet dismissed suggestions that Russia aims to influence the election in her favor.

Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Le Pen said Putin represents a “new vision” of the world.

“A new world has emerged in the past years. This is Vladimir Putin’s world, Donald Trump’s world in the United States, Mr. (Narendra) Modi’s world in India,” she said.

“I think I am probably the one who shares with all these great nations a vision of cooperation and not one of subservience — a hawkish vision that has too often been expressed by the European Union.”

Le Pen met Putin hours after a previously announced visit to the lower house of the Russian parliament. In the meeting with members of the Duma, Le Pen urged Russia and France to work together to save the world from globalism and Islamic fundamentalism.

Such positions put her in parallel with Kremlin stances and there has been wide speculation that Russia aims to influence the upcoming French election. But Putin dismissed those claims.

“We by no means want to influence the current events but we reserve the right to communicate with all representatives of all political forces of the country, as do our partners in Europe and the United States for example,” Interfax news agency quoted Putin as telling Le Pen.

“I know that you represent quite a fast-developing spectrum of European political forces,” he said.

Le Pen is among European politicians who have called for closer ties with Putin and approved of Moscow’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.

She has visited Moscow on several occasions, enjoying positive Russian state media coverage. Moscow has courted far-right parties in Europe in an influence-building campaign amid friction between Russia and the West over the conflict in Ukraine and the war in Syria.

The meeting — their first, according to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov — comes less than a month ahead of the French election, with the first round set to take place on April 23.

Peskov told reporters that Putin’s meeting with Le Pen and his encounters with other representatives of foreign opposition forces were “normal practice”.

“Russia is ready to stay in contact with representatives of all political forces, with the current leadership, with representatives of the opposition,” Peskov said.

He added it was “important” for Moscow to exchange with political forces that advocate “the need to engage in bilateral dialogue to find solutions to existing problems”.

It is rare, however, for Putin to meet a foreign presidential candidate so close to an election.