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| Marine Le Pen of France Meets With Vladimir Putin in Moscow | Marine Le Pen of France Meets With Vladimir Putin in Moscow |
| (about 4 hours later) | |
| PARIS — Marine Le Pen, the French far right’s presidential candidate, has never hidden her admiration for President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, and on Friday she met with him in the Kremlin. | PARIS — Marine Le Pen, the French far right’s presidential candidate, has never hidden her admiration for President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, and on Friday she met with him in the Kremlin. |
| Russian television broadcast images of Ms. Le Pen, gesticulating energetically across the table from a disengaged-looking Mr. Putin. Earlier, she called for “developing relations” with Russia and “cooperation” in antiterrorism. Both were nods to her presidential campaign platform, which advocates closer ties with Mr. Putin, friendliness toward President Trump and rejection of the European Union. | Russian television broadcast images of Ms. Le Pen, gesticulating energetically across the table from a disengaged-looking Mr. Putin. Earlier, she called for “developing relations” with Russia and “cooperation” in antiterrorism. Both were nods to her presidential campaign platform, which advocates closer ties with Mr. Putin, friendliness toward President Trump and rejection of the European Union. |
| The meeting highlighted the potential for a general realignment of relations with Russia, even at a time when it has been accused of meddling in Western elections through computer hacking and the promotion of fake news, sowing alarm on both sides of the Atlantic. | |
| The Trump administration has shown itself sympathetic to Moscow, to the extent that pre-election contacts between the two sides are being investigated in the United States. In a crucial election year in Europe, campaigns are now peppered with parties and candidates that could sharply redirect ties with Moscow. | |
| Chancellor Angela Merkel’s election-year challengers in Germany, on the left and the far right, tilt more easily toward Russia. The Five Star Movement in Italy, which presents a rising challenge to the political establishment if elections are held there this year, does as well. | Chancellor Angela Merkel’s election-year challengers in Germany, on the left and the far right, tilt more easily toward Russia. The Five Star Movement in Italy, which presents a rising challenge to the political establishment if elections are held there this year, does as well. |
| Then there is Ms. Le Pen, who Russian television reported had met earlier with parliamentary deputies in Moscow, while calling for the lifting of sanctions against Russia for its land grab in Ukraine. | Then there is Ms. Le Pen, who Russian television reported had met earlier with parliamentary deputies in Moscow, while calling for the lifting of sanctions against Russia for its land grab in Ukraine. |
| Mr. Putin’s Russia has long been a source of aid for Ms. Le Pen’s National Front. In 2014, her party received a $9.7 million loan from a Russian bank; Ms. Le Pen said French banks were shunning her party. The loan nonetheless drew condemnation from the governing Socialists as an unsavory example of foreign financing for a French political party. | |
| Denying any quid pro quo, the National Front was the only French party to approve Russia’s annexation of Crimea, and its officials have regularly called for the lifting of Western sanctions against Russia. National Front officials regularly visit Russia. From its earliest origins, the party has not been reticent about displaying an affinity for authoritarian leaders. | |
| “I won’t hide that, in a certain sense, I admire Vladimir Putin,” Ms. Le Pen was quoted as saying in the Russian paper Kommersant in 2011. “He makes mistakes, but who doesn’t? The situation in Russia is not easy.” | “I won’t hide that, in a certain sense, I admire Vladimir Putin,” Ms. Le Pen was quoted as saying in the Russian paper Kommersant in 2011. “He makes mistakes, but who doesn’t? The situation in Russia is not easy.” |
| Her foreign policy positions in the 2017 campaign — Ms. Le Pen is favored to win in a first round of voting April 23 but lose in the second round two weeks later — have a clear pro-Russian tilt. Aides have praised Ms. Le Pen’s ideological closeness to both Mr. Trump and Mr. Putin, saying she is well placed to form alliances with both. | Her foreign policy positions in the 2017 campaign — Ms. Le Pen is favored to win in a first round of voting April 23 but lose in the second round two weeks later — have a clear pro-Russian tilt. Aides have praised Ms. Le Pen’s ideological closeness to both Mr. Trump and Mr. Putin, saying she is well placed to form alliances with both. |
| “She’s the only one who can speak with both Putin and Trump,” one of Ms. Le Pen’s top lieutenants, Jean-Lin Lacapelle, said in an interview here two weeks ago. | |
| “She’s got a privileged relationship with Putin,” said Mr. Lacapelle, a longtime friend of Ms. Le Pen. “You can’t be isolated when you’ve got both Putin and Trump on your side.” | |
| Asked whether the Le Pen campaign was in touch with Trump officials, Mr. Lacapelle would say only, “There are lots of things going on.” | Asked whether the Le Pen campaign was in touch with Trump officials, Mr. Lacapelle would say only, “There are lots of things going on.” |
| In a fiercely nationalist speech to diplomats in Paris last month, Ms. Le Pen criticized the European Union, which she wants France to leave, for having “mistreated” Russia, calling Russia an “indispensable interlocutor” in the Middle East. | In a fiercely nationalist speech to diplomats in Paris last month, Ms. Le Pen criticized the European Union, which she wants France to leave, for having “mistreated” Russia, calling Russia an “indispensable interlocutor” in the Middle East. |
| Ms. Le Pen spoke of wanting to “anchor” Russia to Europe, even as she heaped scorn on the European Union, which she said was “facing contrariwise to the rest of the world.” | Ms. Le Pen spoke of wanting to “anchor” Russia to Europe, even as she heaped scorn on the European Union, which she said was “facing contrariwise to the rest of the world.” |
| “Everywhere, globalization is in retreat,” Ms. Le Pen told a group of bemused diplomats in a gilded hall in the fashionable 16th Arrondissement. “The Europe of peoples will be constructed against globalist dissolution,” she said. “I celebrate the renaissance of the European peoples.” | “Everywhere, globalization is in retreat,” Ms. Le Pen told a group of bemused diplomats in a gilded hall in the fashionable 16th Arrondissement. “The Europe of peoples will be constructed against globalist dissolution,” she said. “I celebrate the renaissance of the European peoples.” |
| She “saluted” what she called Mr. Trump’s “realism” and his “desire for change,” while quoting approvingly former French President Charles de Gaulle’s dictum that states have “no friends, but only interests.” | She “saluted” what she called Mr. Trump’s “realism” and his “desire for change,” while quoting approvingly former French President Charles de Gaulle’s dictum that states have “no friends, but only interests.” |
| She insisted that the “singularity of the world’s populations is not soluble merely in the market,” while denouncing the “lies of globalization and liberalism.” | She insisted that the “singularity of the world’s populations is not soluble merely in the market,” while denouncing the “lies of globalization and liberalism.” |