French media site Mediapart has reported that hackers have
leaked thousands of texts and emails sent between the Kremlin and the
French far-right party, the National Front.
According to French newspaper Le Monde, the hackers posted the messages on their website
and many of the texts discuss Marine Le Pen, the leader of the National
Front, and her support for the annexation of the Crimean peninsula,
which occurred in March 2014.
The exchanges are between ‘Timur Prokopenko,’ who the
hackers identify as a Kremlin official and Kostya, a man they describe
as a “Russian connection” who has access to Le Pen.
The men discuss finding out if Le Pen will back Russia in
Crimea by becoming “an observer” of the annexation. According to Le
Monde, one message from Prokopenko reads “We really need her, I said to
the boss you could arrange this with her”, in reference to Le Pen’s
support of the internationally unrecognised referendum held before
Russia annexed Crimea. Kostya then gives assurances that the National
Front “will officially take a position on the Crimea".
The head of the National Front’s list in Ile-de-France
constituency, Aymeric Chauprade, was an observer at the Crimea
referendum last March, although the party denied allegations that he had
attended as the foreign policy advisor. Speaking of his decision to
attend, Chauprade told Russian News Channel RT: “I think the referendum
is legitimate. We are talking about long-term history. We are talking
about the Russian people, about the territories of the former USSR.”
In February this year, Le Pen gave an interview to the Polish weekly Do Rzeczy in which she said that France should recognise Crimea as part of Russia.
In December she revealed that her party had received a €9m loan from Russian-owned First Czech-Russian Bank, leading to reports
that Putin was purposefully bankrolling radical European parties in
order to destabilise Europe. However, Le Pen argued that French banks
had turned down the National Front for a loan and so they had accepted
one from Russia instead.
Le Pen visited Moscow several times last year and met with
deputy prime minister Dmitry Rogozin and other Kremlin officials to
discuss policy issues
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