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Moscow's aim is to undermine support for Ukraine and weaken NATO's resolve, the documents show. The effort parallels similar interventions in Germany.
The far-right party of Le Pen wants to overthrow the Macron government in France with the help of Moscow and Vladimir Putin, writes "Washington Post".
According to the investigation of the American newspaper "Washington Post", Russia is carrying out an operation to overturn the political situation in France, in which it is said that the far-right party of Marine Le Pen plays an important role.
The newspaper cites "Kremlin documents obtained by a European security agency" implicating Vladimir Putin's circle, whose methods, according to the same source, combine social media influence - led by "trolls" and party support of the extreme right.
"It's all a hoax", reacted the National Front spokesman, Laurent Jacobelli, speaking to Sud Radio.
He claimed that there is "no connection" between Russia and his party.
Last June, the Macron government's rapporteur to a parliamentary committee had called the National Front (FN, which was later renamed National Alarm, RN) a "transmission belt" for Russia's positions.
Russia has stepped up its efforts to undermine French support for Kiev — a covert propaganda front in Western Europe that is part of the war against Ukraine, according to Kremlin documents and interviews with European security officials and far-right political figures.
The Kremlin's maneuvering and ties to a host of far-right parties across Europe, including France, are worrying some European officials ahead of European Parliament elections in June. Josep Borrell, the European Union's foreign policy chief, warned at a conference this month that those elections could be "as dangerous as the American one", fueled by "fear" in response to rising inequality and security threats. . "Europe is in danger," he said.
Kremlin documents obtained by a European security service and reviewed by the Washington Post show that Sergei Kiriyenko, the first deputy chief of staff in President Vladimir Putin's administration, instructed Kremlin political strategists to promote political discord in France. through social media and the French, political figures, opinion leaders and activists.
Moscow's aim is to undermine support for Ukraine and weaken NATO's resolve, the documents show. The effort parallels similar interventions in Germany, where the Kremlin has tried to marry the far right and far left into an anti-war alliance, The Post previously reported.
The documents show that Kremlin political strategists produced and published content and social media articles critical of Western support for the government of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
A note written by one of the strategists in June 2023 instructed an employee of the lobbying companies to create a "200-character comment from a middle-aged Frenchman" who considers Europe's support for Ukraine "a foolish adventure". The fictional French person was also supposed to argue that support for Ukraine is turning into "inflation ... and falling living standards."
Asked about the documents, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said they appeared to be "no more than a last ditch or total lie," partly because Kiriyenko focuses on domestic politics and partly because "it is clear to him all analysts" that "the whole of Europe is suffering" from the sanctions against Russia "and there is no need to have any promotion of this".
The Kremlin's messages have so far had limited resonance in France, where President Emmanuel Macron has been at the forefront of Europe's efforts to support Ukraine and the majority of the population has backed him.
But the visibility of pro-Russian social media accounts is growing in France, according to Thomas Gomart, director of the French Institute for International Relations, and approval ratings for France's far-right parties have risen.
Rhetoric from Russia's allies like Schaffhauser - who has connections across the country's far right - about the cost of the war in Ukraine is increasingly being combined with the idea that it is an American adventure and that France needs to assert itself as a power. great and restore relations with Russia.
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