By
PARIS — It is not too hard to explain the love affair
between the Kremlin and the National Front, the far-right party in France. They share positions on a wide range of issues —
national sovereignty (for), the European Union (against), Russia’s annexation of Crimea (for) and an American role in
Europe (against).
There is also the noteworthy fact that the National Front
received a 9 million euro loan, about $10.1 million at current exchange rates, in
2014 from the Moscow-based First Czech Russian Bank, now defunct, which had
ties to the Russian elite.
That makes for a cozy relationship, not unlike the
Kremlin’s rapport with other far-right groups across Europe.
More difficult to explain is the infatuation among
members of France’s mainstream conservative party not just with Russia, but
specifically with its leader, Vladimir V. Putin.
Here is a paean by Nicolas Sarkozy, the former French president who isangling for a comeback and battling for
the nomination of his conservative party, the Republicans, in next year’s
presidential elections: “I am not one of his intimates but I confess to
appreciating his frankness, his calm, his authority. And then he is so
Russian!”
The praise in Mr.
Sarkozy’s book, “France for Life,” did not end there. He added that he could
detect in Mr. Putin the same “Russian soul” shared by Tolstoy, Gogol and
Dostoyevsky.
Fascination with the “Russian soul” has a long history
in France. In the Soviet era, Moscow was a source of inspiration, and
influence, among members of the French left.
This has been amplified by a vigorous, well-funded
effort by Russia to woo the French political elite and Russian émigré groups,
as described in a recent book, “The Kremlin’s Networks in France,” by Cécile
Vaissié, a French university professor.
The book details the Kremlin’s sponsorship of
organizations, conferences, blogs and media outlets that support its policies.
“The Russian effort works best on issues that already
have traction in France,” Ms. Vaissié said in an interview. “They are feeding a
certain distrust in the European Union, in American imperialism and in
representative government, generally.”
One example was a nonbinding resolution in the French
Parliament that called for a lifting of European Union sanctions against
Russia, adopted on a 55-to-44 vote last April at a sparsely attended session of
the 577-member body.
That vote — which has had no influence on French
government policy but was widely reported in the
Russian news media — was “incontestably” the work of parliamentary
deputies who have been assiduously courted by the Kremlin, Ms. Vaissié said.
The Russian message, which blames Washington for the
crisis in Ukraine, has found an audience in those French political
circles where anti-Americanism is never far below the surface.
“When French politicians speak warmly about Russia,
that gives them an opening to talk badly about the United States,” said Thomas
Gomart, director of the French Institute of International Relations.
Once known as Sarko
l’Américain because of his pro-Washington views, Mr. Sarkozy now says his first
foreign policy initiative, if re-elected, will be to go to Moscow. Earlier
criticisms of Russia’s human rights violations have been dropped from his 2016
playbook.
“He is trying to outflank the hard right,” said
François Heisbourg, a French foreign policy analyst. “It is political opportunism
writ large.”
Among other center-right politicians, some have
detected a strong whiff of admiration for Mr. Putin’s strongman image, one
bolstered by Russia’s aggressive
use of force in Syria.
But in Mr. Gomart’s view, Russia is playing a long
game, bolstering the National Front and dividing the center right to sow
discord in a major European democracy and gain influence in the next government.
Ms. Vaissié said the Russian effort had a double
purpose. It both echoes back to Russia as a European endorsement of Kremlin
strategies, and it undermines French faith in a European Union, now in crisis.
“It is a P.R. coup,” she said. “It has had no impact
on policy, but it feeds a negative opinion of Europe that exists in France
already.”
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