MOSCOW: President Vladimir Putin met French far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen as she visited Moscow on Friday, with the Russian leader stressing that the Kremlin does not meddle in France’s politics.

Le Pen’s meeting with Putin — their first, according to Moscow — comes a month before the first round of the French presidential vote and as she tries to boost her international status by meeting with world leaders.

“We by no means want to influence the current events but we reserve the right to communicate with all representatives of all political forces of the country,” Putin said, according to a Kremlin-issued transcript.

Russia has been accused of interfering in the US election in an effort to sway results in President Donald Trump’s favour, prompting a probe by American authorities.

Last month an aide to staunchly pro-Europe French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron accused Russia of trying to derail his campaign by spreading false rumours through state media. The leader of the National Front far-right party said she and Putin had discussed ways to fight “fundamentalism.”

Speaking to reporters, she declined to say which issues Putin had raised during the encounter. She said Putin represents a “new vision” of the world.

“A new world has emerged in the past years. This is Vladimir Putin’s world, Donald Trump’s world in the United States, Mr (Narendra) Modi’s world in India,” she told reporters.

“I think I am probably the one who shares with all these great nations a vision of cooperation and not one of subservience — a hawkish vision that has too often been expressed by the European Union.”

Anti-EU Le Pen is among European politicians who have called for closer ties with Putin and approved of Moscow’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, which saw the United States and European Union slap sanctions against Russia. Le Pen said that if she were elected president, she would “ponder lifting sanctions” against Russia.

“I have always been opposed to these sanctions that I thought were profoundly unfair and utterly counter-productive,” she told reporters. Le Pen has visited Moscow on several occasions, enjoying positive Russian state media coverage.

Earlier this year she visited Lebanese President Michel Aoun and Chadian President Idriss Deby.

Published in Dawn, March 25th, 2017