Marine Le Pen: Cold War with Russia 'a mistake'
The presidential candidate says France should keep equal distance from US and Russia amid Ukraine tensions.
This April will mark the third time that Marine Le Pen has run for the Elysee as a far-right candidate in France鈥檚 presidential election.
Contesting the polls under a newly renamed party National Rally (RN), she hopes to better the results of 2017 when she finished runner-up to Emmanuel Macron.
Speaking to Hardtalk鈥檚 Stephen Sackur in a wide-ranging interview in Paris, Ms Le Pen addressed tensions in Ukraine and warned against a new Cold War. She said Europe should maintain diplomatic, cultural and economic relations with Moscow.
Ms Le Pen said she believes Russia does not want to invade Ukraine and claimed US President Joe Biden is 鈥渋n a very weak position politically鈥� and so was seeking to exaggerate the sense of crisis.
鈥淗e鈥檚 doing what the leaders of the United States normally do when they fell politically fragile鈥�, she said. 鈥淔ind an enemy and if you don鈥檛 have one, you can try and create one.鈥�
She added that she would defend Ukraine鈥檚 sovereignty just as she would 鈥渄efend the sovereignty of France鈥�.
