4.19.22
French far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen has long been an admirer of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The leader of the National Rally party is taking on incumbent Emmanuel Macron in a runoff election on Sunday that could determine the future direction of Europe. Pro-European Union centrist Macron is leading in the polls ahead of the vote, but it would certainly be viewed as a boon by Putin if Le Pen—who has said she would pull France out of NATO's military command and reduce French support for the EU— were to triumph. Le Pen traveled to Moscow to meet Putin when she was running for the presidency in 2017, received loans from a Russian bank to fund her party and supported Putin's illegal annexation of Crimea. So what exactly has Le Pen said about Putin over the years?
In a March 2017 interview with CBS News, Le Pen called concerns that Putin posed a threat to Europe "a big scam." Asked if she felt Putin threatened France and other countries, she said: "No, I don't believe it is so. Nothing Vladimir Putin has done would make me reach that conclusion." She also denied that taking Russian loans worth €11 million in 2014 had influenced her stance on Russia. When she traveled to Russia to meet with Putin, according to Euronews, she said that if elected, she would consider plans to swiftly lift EU sanctions on Russia over its annexation of Crimea. "It's now the world of Putin, the world of Donald Trump," she told reporters after the meeting. She also claimed that Putin must be "pretty popular" with Russians to have been re-elected so many times. In early February, Le Pen said she didn't believe that Russia would invade Ukraine. That prediction proved wrong when Putin ordered Russian forces into its neighboring country on February 24.
