After announcing the results of the first round of French presidential election, a protest march began at the Place de la Bastille in Paris. It’s very profitably for Russia because the Kremlin needs a picture of mess and rally dispersal in France in order to show “violations of human rights in civilized Europe”. Also, Russian propaganda uses these protests for saying like how horrible to live in Europe. But this is just a rehearsal, as we clearly understand. The main show is scheduled to start after the second round of election.
Putin’s Russia has invested heavily in Le Pen’s campaign. Officially, we know about funding her presidential campaign from a bank close to Vladimir Putin. And we can only imagine how huge the real Kremlin support is, including propaganda. But the impossibility of her victory became more obvious. Especially, when other candidates, Francois Fillon and Jean-Luc Melenchon, called to support Emmanuel Macron in the second round of the election.
Therefore, the Kremlin will bet everything on the making of chaos in France. The complexity of the situation for the Kremlin is that despite the last terror attack in Paris, the rating of Le Pen didn’t rise much by the election day. Perhaps, her rating has been reached the limit, and the rest of the electorate is not ready to vote for Le Pen under any pretext. That sounds good before the second round of elections.
At the same time, the Kremlin knows that the supporters of Le Pen and her opponents are the most radicalized against each other. And to wreak chaos in France is absolutely real, the slogan “France or death!” will work. Moreover, this will not be like a so-called “color revolution” in France. Because the Kremlin’s goal is not to change the power in France to acceptable or pro-Russian. Actually, they don’t care about Le Pen, they just use her nothing more than like a puppet. The Kremlin is interested in unruly, riotous, and uncontrollable France.
Worst of all, Russian could easily maintain a powerful conflict inside France. For example, it’s easy to set migrants on the supporters of Le Pen. Alternatively, under the guise of Le Pen’s supporters, it’s easy to beat up migrants. The scenario with a bloody confrontation in France will be perfect for the Kremlin.
