Marine Le Pen says France yilded to US pressure imposing sanctions against Russia

MOSCOW, May 26. /TASS/. France yielded to pressure from the United States in regard to Western sanctions against Russia’s French politician Marine Le Pen, who is currently on a visit to Moscow told journalists on Tuesday.

‘The problem is that the French government, both the previous and the current one, is very susceptible to the US influence," Le Pen, who is the leader of National Front political party, said. ‘I must say that the United States played a major role in sanctions against Russia."

Asked by a TASS correspondent whether official Paris would change its policy in regard to Russia, Le Pen answered smiling "the middle of the year 2017 - Marine Le Pen elected the president of the republic."

Relations between Russia and the West have been strained by the developments in Ukraine as the United States accused Russia of its direct involvement in the armed conflict in the neighboring ex-Soviet republic and slapped Moscow with sanctions. Moscow repeatedly denied the accusations. The European Union joined Washington’s policy in regard to Russia and imposed own sanctions.

The West started imposing sanctions on Russia since March 2014 in the wake of the drastic events evolving in Ukraine at that time. First, an early EU summit stalled the talks on a visa-free regime and a new base agreement on Russia-EU cooperation. Further on, the sanctions were grouped into three categories - personal, corporate and sectoral.

Marine Le Pen, who held a bilateral meeting on Tuesday with Sergey Naryshkin, the speaker of the Russian parliament’s lower house, said she "was glad regularly exchanging opinions" with the Russian lawmaker on key international issues.

"I believe that the current developments in the world demand exchange of opinions on such important issues as the crisis in Ukraine, deterioration of the situation with the ISIS, the threat of terrorist attacks and the global financial situation, since we are not safeguarded against a new economic crisis, particularly with the problems in Greece and Italy," she said.

Marine Le Pen said in her opinion the recent decision of the French authorities concerning the severed deal on Mistral-class helicopter carriers’ supplies to Russia as well as the denial to attend celebrations of the 70th anniversary of the WWII Victory in Moscow on May 9 was "a real submission to US position."

The French politician said she hoped that France "will again find the freedom on the expression of its position and diplomatic freedom."

"We are fighting for this," she said adding that such changes were unlikely to take place under the current government, led by President Francois Hollande.