Russian EU ambassador says Kremlin has no favorite in French election

Ian Bond, director of foreign policy at the Centre for European Reform (CER), says what surprises him is that Chizhov can say all this with a straight face. "Basically the Putin approach [is that] unless you actually catch me with my hand in the cookie jar, I haven't stolen any cookies," Bond said. "Is he going to come out and say 'yes, of course, we interfere in people's elections'? He's doing precisely what I would expect him to do, which is deny, deny, deny. Does he care if people believe it or not? No, not especially." Bond believes Putin may well want to root for Le Pen in the French vote, if he truly isn't already, because Macron has already taken a stand with the RT snub and is likely to go further to root out Russian interference.  "He's got a strong incentive to say 'now's payback time,'" Bond said, "particularly because he will not want the [National Front] to do well in parliamentary elections, which you probably have to have at some point."

...With the next big European election after France coming in Germany, the CER's Ian Bond says he thinks Berlin is ready to withstand the Russian onslaught that's already underway. He says the 2016 "Lisa case," spreading Russian-created disinformation, served as a good "wakeup call" and that the Germans have responded with more effective safeguards long before it's time to head to the ballot box.