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After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, orchestrated by Vladimir Putin, can he become an ally of the West again? “Of course”, according to Marine Le Pen. This Thursday on France 2, the far-right candidate said that it was possible to get closer to the Russian president, if the war in Ukraine ended, and while Russia is the target of significant Western sanctions. And asserts a principle of reality, beyond moral considerations.
“It depends on the terrain. I have always said it, a great power can at the same time be an ally in a certain number of territories, an adversary, an enemy or a competitor”, declared Marine Le Pen, believing that France had to do with the presence of Russia, which “is not going to move”.
A good ally against terrorism?
According to the candidate of the National Rally, credited with 20% in the first round in our latest poll, it will be possible in the future to count on the strongman of the Kremlin as an ally, “against Islamist fundamentalism if it becomes extremely brutal,” she said.
In 2017, Russia was intensely involved in strikes against Daesh in Syria, not hesitating to raze entire villages and to use particularly powerful cruise missiles. Heavy, imprecise attacks, which would have mainly benefited his ally, Bashar al-Assad, according to several actors in international diplomacy, including the United States.
The Russian president would have taken the opportunity to crush the civil opposition to Bashar el-Assad and create a climate of terror: “The deliberate bombardments of the civilian populations, of whatever nature, create an inadmissible humanitarian but also political situation”, had launched President Hollande, in an interview with the newspaper Le Monde in 2018, about the Russian strikes.
Marine Le Pen, like Jean-Luc Mélenchon and Éric Zemmour, is regularly singled out for her closeness displayed before the war in Ukraine with certain controversial positions of Vladimir Putin. According to Liberation, the National Rally was preparing to distribute a leaflet by the candidate alongside Vladimir Putin before he invaded Ukraine.
In 2017, less than four weeks before the presidential election, Marine Le Pen had met Vladimir Poutine in person. The latter had denied wanting to influence the French elections but had dubbed the positions of Le Pen, in particular on the response to terrorism.