PARIS (Sputnik) – On October 19, Russian President Vladimir Putin is expected to visit France. On Sunday, French President Francois Hollande expressed doubt that a meeting with Putin would be useful. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that there had not been official information about possible cancellation of the event and the Russian side continued its preparations for the visit.
"We cannot break off [the relations with] Putin, we cannot start a new ‘Cold war’," Juppe told BFMTV channel in an interview, adding that France also did not have to agree with Putin despite maintaining relations.
Juppe also stressed that Russia offer the way to solve Syrian crisis.
According to the opinion survey conducted by Kantar-Sofres — OnePoint for RTL, LCI and Le Figaro media outlets, Juppe, who represents The Republicans party, took the lead in the center and right-wing presidential primary elections, securing 42 percent of votes, while just 28 percent of voters intend to support his party fellow, former president Nicolas Sarkozy, the survey showed.
Primaries for The Republicans and the parties allied with it will be held in France on November 20-27. Aside from Juppe and Sarkozy, five other candidates from the right-wing parties have been registered for the primaries.
The first round of the French presidential elections is scheduled for April 23, 2017.
Since 2014, relations between Russia and the European Union, including France, deteriorated amid the crisis in Ukraine. Brussels, Washington and their allies have introduced several rounds of anti-Russia sanctions over Moscow's alleged involvement in the Ukrainian conflict.
Russia has repeatedly refuted the allegations, warning that the Western sanctions are counterproductive and undermine global stability.
