In France, a parliamentary commission released a report on how Marine Le Pen's party played into Russia's hands

The French political party National Front (now National Rally), whose leader is Marine Le Pen, played the role of a "drive belt" for the Russian authorities, especially at the time of Moscow's illegal annexation of Ukrainian Crimea.

Source. This is stated in the report of the parliamentary commission on combating foreign interference, which was made available to journalists, RFI reports.

The commission's conclusions were approved by 11 votes to 5, with one more parliamentarian abstaining.

"To claim, as Marine Le Pen did, that the people of Crimea 'freely' voted to join Russia is, to put it mildly, to spread unverified information. The violation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of a state, Ukraine, which has lost a significant part of its territory, is clearly not acceptable to the great defenders of national sovereignty, Ms. Le Pen and the National Rally," the report says.

"This direct relaying of official Russian discourse, this effective and, at least on this issue, undeniable 'drive belt', is clearly appreciated in Moscow: as soon as Ms. Le Pen's interview with the parliamentary commission ended on May 24, Russian media outlets were happy to repeat what they believe to be the main statement made by Marine Le Pen: that Crimea has always been Russian," the commission noted.

In a comment to AFP, Marine Le Pen called the report "dishonest" and "politicized."

Background. As a reminder, Reuters described how German meat tycoon Tonnis promoted Putin's policies in Germany and paved the way for German business to enter Russia.