US should pay France for loss due to sanctions on Russia: French Prez candidate Le Pen

The United States must compensate France for the loss of Russian gas if European Union (EU) imposes sanctions on Russian energy imports, said French Presidential candidate Marine Le Pen.

Noting Washington's pressure on the EU to slash Russian oil and energy imports, Le Pen in an interview asserted that Americans who earn "solid profits" by selling liquified gas "could transfer the money to France", RT news quoted. Pen also warned that anti-Russian sanctions on gas and energy will see an "unbearable" rise in already-high fuel prices, for which the US fuel magnates care "very little" about. 

Notably, French presidential candidate Le Pen is an avid supporter of sanctions against Russia, except embargo on oil and gas. "I am perfectly in favour of all the other sanctions...I don't want French people to suffer the consequences of sanctions," Le Pen had said in an interview with France Inter Radio.

It is pertinent to mention that the far-right politician won the highest number of votes after the first round of counting. Le Pen faces French President Emmanuel Macron in the presential elections. The second round of the French Presidential election is set to be held on April 24.

In the first round of voting for the next French President, Marine Le Pen and two other parties together received 32% of the vote, while Macron won 27.8% votes, according to AP. 

Amid the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, Le Pen has been criticised by her rivals for "being too close" to Russia, as reported by BBC. She had supported Moscow's move to annex Crimea in 2014. Her political party is also said to have received a loan in the same year from a Russian bank with ties to Kremlin. Later in 2017, she called for scrapping international sanctions in relation to the same. 

Le Pen vows to remove Paris from NATO command structure

Marine Le Pen on April 13 vowed that she will remove France from the command structure of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) if she wins the presidential elections. The presidential candidate, however, clarified that she will not leave the bloc, instead just move out of its command hierarchy given that the US leads the integrated command.

She also stressed that there should be "strategic reapprochement" between the intergovernmental military bloc and Russia once the Moscow-Kyiv war is over.

(Image: AP)