Vladimir Putin’s French gambit backfires as presidential leaders fade

[TomSea]

Vladimir Putin’s French gambit backfires as presidential leaders fade

Hamilton Spectator
By Henry Meyer and Ilya Arkhipov

Leave it to fickle French voters to ruin Vladimir Putin's new-found reputation as a kingmaker in the West.

Putin's current favourite in France's presidential race, Francois Fillon, has tumbled in the polls amid a probe into whether family members received state money for work they didn't do. The Russian leader lauded the former premier in November, just after Donald Trump won the White House amid allegations of Kremlin meddling through a covert offensive by an army of hackers.

The endorsement of Fillon, whose fortunes faded further Tuesday when he was charged with misuse of public funds, was unprecedented, particularly since a bank linked to a Putin ally had funded rival candidate Marine Le Pen, the far-right firebrand who's called sanctions on Russia "completely stupid."

With the first of two rounds less than six weeks away, Putin's strategy appears to be backfiring. While polls show Le Pen with a slight lead over Emmanuel Macron, a 39-year-old independent who backs European Union penalties on Russia over Ukraine and accuses the Kremlin of cyberattacks on his campaign, they also show her losing a run-off by a landslide.

"The full range of instruments has now been put into action in France," said Oleg Morozov, a former senior Kremlin official who now sits on the international affairs committee in the upper house of parliament. Russia denies hacking and Morozov said the instruments in question include diplomats as well as "agents of influence" — sympathetic insiders who can act as intermediaries or help Russia improve its image.

Continued: http://www.thespec.com/news-story/7195525-vladimir-putin-s-french-gambit-backfires-as-presidential-leaders-fade/