The Kremlin is denying it's behind media and internet attacks on the campaign of French presidential frontrunner Emmanuel Macron, as his camp renewed the charges against Russian media and a hackers' group operating in Ukraine.
On Tuesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, replying to a question on a daily conference call, said charges made on Monday by Macron's party chief, Richard Ferrand, were absurd.
"We didn't have and do not have any intention of interfering in the internal affairs of other countries, or in their electoral processes in particular," Peskov told reporters.
"That there is a hysterical anti-(President Vladimir) Putin campaign in certain countries abroad is an obvious fact."
Ferrand said on Monday that the French centrist politician, who is now seen by opinion polls as the favourite to win election in May, had become a "fake news" target of Russian media and that his campaign was facing thousands of internet attacks.
Ferrand said Moscow looked favourably on the policies of far-right leader Marine Le Pen and centre-right candidate Francois Fillon - both election rivals of Macron - and both had been "mysteriously spared" from Russian media criticism.
Macron's strong pro-Europe stance was not to Russia's liking however, he said.
Le Pen, who heads the National Front and is Macron's closest competitor in the race for the Elysee, wants to take France out of the European Union and supports Russian policy on Ukraine.
On Tuesday Ferrand renewed those charges saying that the databases and e-mail boxes of Macron's En Marche! (Onwards) party were under attack.
He said about half of these thousands of attacks came mainly from Ukraine and had been organised and coordinated by a "structured group" and not by lone hackers.
"We are in the presence of an orchestrated attempt by a foreign power to destabilise a presidential election candidate," Ferrand said and called on the French government again to take steps to prevent foreign meddling in the French election campaign.
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