French Far-Right Leader Marine Le Pen in Moscow Amid Ukraine Tensions
French far-right National Front leader Marine Le Pen met a senior Russian official in Moscow on Tuesday, underlining her party's regular ties with the Kremlin despite East-West tensions smoldering over Ukraine.
Le Pen, whose anti-immigrant, eurosceptic party previously secured a major loan from a Russian-owned bank, has fiercely criticized the West's policy toward Russia over the conflict in Ukraine as overly hostile to Moscow.
Le Pen's party secured loans worth 9 million euros ($9.83 million) from a Russian-owned bank but Le Pen said Tuesday that getting any further loans was "not at all the purpose" of her visit.
She declined to say what other meetings she had during her "very short" visit to Moscow, which cherishes ties with certain European figures who could apply further pressure on the EU's increasingly troubled unity over Ukraine.
Marine Le Pen, the leader of France's far-right National Front party, walks after leaving the building
of the State Duma, the lower house of parliament, in central Moscow, May 26.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/french-far-right-leader-marine-le-pen-in-moscow-amid-ukraine-tensions/522402.html
Funding the far-right National Front party is probably a smart move by Russia. We shall see if securing more funding was, in fact, "all the purpose" of her visit. The far-right all over Europe is anti-EU which serves Russia just fine.
