Legislative elections: Russia is following the situation in France “very closely”

“We are waiting for the second round, but the preferences of French voters are more or less clear to us,” said Dmitri Peskov, the Kremlin spokesperson, on Monday the day after the first round of the legislative elections in France. The Kremlin is following the elections in France “very closely,” he added.

Other Russian officials have placed the results of the first round in France in the broader context of upcoming legislative and presidential elections in the United Kingdom and the United States, key allies of Ukraine. “Last week, we saw Joe Biden lose the debate to Donald Trump. And now Macron’s party has lost by coming in third place in the legislative elections. The heads of state in power are suffering resounding defeats,” said Vyacheslav Volodin, speaker of the Duma, the lower house of parliament. American and French citizens “have spoken out for the development of their economies and the need to find solutions to global security issues,” he said.

“We must not exaggerate the importance of the National Rally and its influence on French politics,” also warned expert Guéorgui Bovt on Russian radio BFM, speaking of the far-right party that came first in Sunday’s legislative elections. by emphasizing that “the French president keeps control of foreign policy”. “The leaders of the RN have already made it known that French support for Ukraine would not be called into question,” he recalled.

“Red lines” on sending ground troops to Ukraine

However, the president of the RN, Jordan Bardella, assured that he would be “extremely vigilant” in the face of “attempts at interference by Russia”, while setting “red lines” on the sending of ground troops to Ukraine or “long-range missiles or military equipment” that could “directly strike Russian cities.” Emmanuel Macron is in favor of the use of Western weapons to “neutralize” military targets in Russia which are used to attack Ukraine.

However, the links between the RN and Russia are regularly highlighted by its opponents. In 2014, the National Front took out a large loan from a Russian-Czech bank, until September 2023, when a full early repayment will take place. Since then, the far-right party has regularly been accused of being influenced by Moscow. “You are talking to your banker when you talk about Russia,” Emmanuel Macron told Marine Le Pen during the debate between the two rounds of the 2022 presidential election.

In the parliamentary report on foreign interference submitted to the Assembly at the beginning of June, around twenty pages were devoted to the “particular case of the National Rally” regarding its resolutely pro-Russian positioning: “With each geopolitical crisis caused by Russia, the FN then the RN assured Vladimir Putin of their support”, according to this report which identified “convergences of views” and “common interests” “which translate into concrete support such as relaying the international positions of the Russian authorities, the travel of RN elected officials in Russia, Donbass or illegally annexed Crimea, including by serving as guarantor for electoral consultations not recognized by the international community.” The RN was, in these respects, described as an “effective transmission belt” and a “direct relay of official Russian discourse”.

And several National Rally candidates in these legislative elections served as guarantor during elections organized by Moscow, notably in Ukraine, by occupying positions of electoral “observers”. This is for example the case of Andréa Kotarac, spokesperson for the RN and candidate in Ain who came first on Sunday evening. This thirty-year-old, ex-LFI activist, had observed elections in Donetsk on behalf of Russia in 2018. Another candidate very favorable to the Kremlin: Frédéric Boccaletti, who also came first in Var, had been an observer during the Russian parliamentary elections in 2021.