French far-right leader and Presidential hopeful Marine Le Pen met with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin on Friday morning during her Moscow trip. The meeting was not announced until the last minute and comes just one month before the first round in France’s elections.
Russia’s spokesperson told journalists at a press conference that Putin and Le Pen did not discuss Russia financing her presidential campaign. Instead, according the spokesman, the two leaders discussed the danger of terrorism and the need for closer cooperation between the two countries.
“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,” Putin reportedly said.
“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.”
And just as Russia publicly stated that they have no intention in influencing French elections, Le Pen’s right-hand man Florian Philippot also gave his reassurance that the campaign will not be receiving another loan from a Russian bank.
“I can assure you for 100% that we will not be financed from Russia,” he said on Friday morning.
Le Pen en Russie: Philippot ne sait pas si elle rencontrera Poutine, mais "nous n'aurons pas de financement d'une banque russe" #8h30Aphatie pic.twitter.com/sf6k46ViLW
— franceinfo (@franceinfo) March 24, 2017
But shortly after the meeting of Putin and Le Pen, several of Russia’s state sponsored publications published conflicting reports of alleged loans to Le Pen’s campaign.
One of Russia’s main news agencies Interfax tweeted: “BREAKING: The Kremlin announces a Russian bank will finance Marine Le Pen’s electoral Le Pen.”
Minutes later the tweet was deleted and another “breaking news” alert appeared which read: “BREAKING: The Kremlin announces that it has no information on a Russian bank financing Marine Le Pen’s campaign.“
Russian newswire:
BREAKING: KREMLIN SAYS RUSSIAN BANKS WILL SPONSOR LE PEN'S CAMPAIGN2 mins later:
RETRACTION: KREMLIN SAYS THEY WON'T
— Alexey Kovalev (@Alexey__Kovalev) March 24, 2017
Another Kremlin sponsored outlet, Life, published a story titled “Russia will help France win the elections.” The tweet of the story also suddenly disappeared and the headline of the story was changed altogether.” The new headline reads: “Le Pen isn’t afraid of anything”.
MOSCOW WILL HELP LE PEN TO WIN THE ELECTION
Tweeted by #Kremlin-loyal TV and deleted 5 minutes later.
Let it sink in.#PutinAtWar pic.twitter.com/kp66QF8XJp
— Julian Röpcke (@JulianRoepcke) March 24, 2017
