France: Marine Le Pen outrightly condemns Macron govt for waging 'cold war' against Russia

French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen criticised the current government's stance to Russia, stating that conducting a "cold war" against Russian President Vladimir Putin is a step in the wrong direction, in an interview with the BBC. Instead of conflict, Le Pen proposed that France should maintain normal diplomatic relations with Moscow, as well as collaborate in other areas such as culture and business. However, the presidential candidate for the National Rally party stated that France should keep some distance from both the United States (US) and Russia.

"There are no friends in the field of geopolitics, there are allies. So we have allies, and I think it's a mistake to wage such a cold war against Russian President Vladimir Putin, pushing him closer to China and creating something like a new empire that is not in the interests of European countries," Marine Le Pen told BBC.

She went on to say that US President Joe Biden's weak political position is partly to blame for the current tensions between the West and Russia over Ukraine. When US leaders feel weak, according to Le Pen, they generally start hunting for an adversary or, in the absence of one and then they create one.

Russia-US-Ukraine conflict psychological warfare: Le Pen

"Now we are seeing how the United States is pushing Ukraine towards the idea of ​​joining NATO so that it can deploy military forces. Thus, Russia in response is pulling troops to their borders with Ukraine. This is something like psychological warfare, containment actions that I would like to avoid," she further added.

Le Pen's words came at a time of heightened tensions between NATO and Russia as the former has repeatedly suggested over the past few months that Moscow might be contemplating an invasion of Ukraine citing purported buildup in Russian soldiers along the border. As fears of a Russian invasion grow, international efforts to defuse the standoff over Ukraine intensified Monday, with French President Emmanuel Macron meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz meeting with US President Joe Biden in Washington to coordinate policies.

The gathering of an estimated 100,000 Russian troops near Ukraine has heightened Western fears of an impending invasion. Russia has denied any plans to attack its neighbour, but it is pressing the United States and its allies to prohibit Ukraine and other former Soviet republics from joining NATO, suspend arms deployments, and pull the NATO forces out of Eastern Europe. The demands were rejected by both Washington and NATO.

(With inputs from agencies)

Image: AP