French election: What exactly is Marine Le Pen's stance on Russia and Vladimir Putin?
Marine Le Pen's comments in an interview in early February this year were particularly forthright: "I do not believe AT ALL that Russia wishes to invade Ukraine," she said.
The remarks were also rather unfortunate, given that barely a fortnight later Vladimir Putin sent thousands of troops, amassed on Ukraine's border, into the country.
Russian bombardments have since flattened towns and cities, and there have been multiple reports of Russian soldiers murdering, torturing and raping civilians.
The challenger to Emmanuel Macron in next Sunday's French presidential run-off said recently that she finds critics' accusations that she is too close to Moscow tantamount to a "particularly unfair trial", insisting she has only ever "defended France's interests".
However, the candidate from the far-right has openly expressed her admiration for the Russian leader in the past and has consistently defended Moscow's foreign policy.
In an unprecedented move, in March 2017 the Russian president met with a candidate for the French presidency in Moscow in the run-up to the race for the Elysée that spring.
The meeting between Vladimir Putin and Marine Le Pen at the Kremlin reignited fears of Russian support for far-right groups in Europe.
The then "Front National" candidate had already sought party financing from a Russian bank — the loan is still being paid off — and repeated her intention to lift quickly EU sanctions imposed on Russia following its annexation of Crimea.
In an interview with the BBC, Le Pen tied her political colours firmly to the mast, citing as her inspirations the newly elected US president as well as the Russian leader.
"The big political lines that I stand up for are the big lines which Mr Trump stands up for, which Mr Putin
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