French election: Marine le Pen meets Vladimir Putin

To the surprise of many, French Presidential candidate and the biggest challenger for the year, Marine Le Pen met with the Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow. According to a Russia Today reporting, President Putin assured the French candidate that his country will not try to influence this year’s Presidential election but reserves the right to meet any French politician it wishes. Putin said, “We attach a lot of importance to our relations with France, trying to maintain smooth relations with both the acting power and the opposition representatives……We don't want to influence in any way the events going on [in France], but reserve our right to communicate with all representatives of the country's political powers, as our partners do in Europe and in the US."

Madame Le Pen reportedly urged the Russian President to do more intelligence sharing in order to defeat global terrorism. Putin cited today’s terrorist incident in Chechnya where six servicemen were killed and underlined the necessity to unite against terrorism. In the past, Madame Le Pen has praised some aspects of President Putin like the US President Donald Trump. Due to her visit, her opponents are likely to paint her as someone who would be weak on Russia and will not be in the interest of the French people. All polls have shown that she would finally lose in the second round of the Presidential election.