Putin meets with Le Pen in attempt to influence French election.

[suffragette]

http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/putin-meets-france-s-le-pen-in-moscow--says-won-t-interfere-in-election/43056130

The meeting also shows that the Kremlin is not shying away from actions that could influence foreign elections, even after the storm over U.S. intelligence agencies' allegations that Russia tried to interfere in the U.S. presidential election to help Donald Trump win the White House.

Russia has denied trying to influence the U.S. vote, and has also dismissed allegations that Kremlin-funded media outlets are spreading "fake news" in an attempt to interfere in the French presidential race.

Dmitry Peskov, Putin's spokesman, told reporters on a conference call that Putin and Le Pen had not discussed the possibility of Russia offering any financial help to her political party.

Her party took a 9-million-euro loan from a Moscow-based bank in 2014, and is actively seeking new sources of funding.

Hmm, I didn't know about that loan. I wonder how long and in what ways Putin has been helping her and her party. Going back for some time, it looks like.

[Jonny Appleseed]

1. Isn't it becoming less advantageous to be connected to Putin in an election season now?

Eyes are all glued upon the national embarrassment that happened here so I feel like being Putin's puppet would drop you in the polls unlike before November.

[ColemanMaskell]

2. 9 million euros sounds pretty advantageous to me. More advantage than disadvantage.

[suffragette]

4. Well, she clearly thinks there's something to be gained by going there and meeting publicly

With him. Who knows what kind of deceitful strategy the discussed.

[ColemanMaskell]

3. Thanks for posting that.

[suffragette]

6. Le Pen is also a Trump fan and was looking forward to Breitbart launching in France.

Looks like a student undercut that plan by buying up domains.

https://www.thelocal.fr/20170203/french-student-buys-websites-in-bid-to-block-breitbarts-move-to-france

A student in Paris has bought several domain names linked to far-right news website Breitbart in the hopes of blocking it from opening in France, according to reports.

Breitbart - the anti-immigration, anti-EU, anti-establishment US news site that supported Donald Trump - said in November that it planned to launch in France with one job in mind: to help get Marine Le Pen elected president.

But the team may have run into an unexpected obstacle - a French student determined to keep them from France.

~~~

He added that he had no intention of selling the domain names - no matter the offer - and had considered redirecting traffic to a non-profit organization.

[ColemanMaskell]

8. Nice try. They'll have to use different domain names. That should stop them? Probably not.

Speaking of Marine Le Pen, this is in the US news now too, e.g. NBC

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/putin-meets-marine-le-pen-moscow-denies-french-election-interference-n738471

NEWS MAR 25 2017, 5:24 AM ET
Putin Meets Marine Le Pen in Moscow, Denies French Election Interference

[Crunchy Frog]

5. I certainly hope the French voters have more sense than ours.

[suffragette]

7. I hope so, too. Given her ties to Trump as well, I wonder what she and Putin discussed.

https://www.thelocal.fr/20161115/breitbart-donald-trump-brexit-to-launch-in-france-to-help-marine-le-pen

She welcomed Trump's stunning victory last week, saying his rise signalled the "building of a new world" and a blow against "unfettered globalisation" and the world elite.

Marechal-Le Pen told AFP on Tuesday that there had been "some small contacts for some time" between the FN and the Trump campaign.