Russian media portrays the events of last spring in the Ukraine as a US-engineered coup that put the "fascists" in power. But Putin is playing a dangerous double game as he accuses the US and NATO of destabilizing the region, while Russia is covertly stepping up its support of right-wing extremist groups in Europe.
So far, the biggest beneficiary of Putin's support has been Marie Le Pen's Front National in France:
The financial and political firepower of Marine Le Pen’s Front National (FN) is to be transformed by a €40m (£32m) loan from a bank with links to the Kremlin, it has been alleged.
Ms Le Pen confirmed earlier this week that a Russian bank was lending her cash-strapped, far-right party €9m. This is part of a growing pattern of connections between Vladimir Putin’s Russia and far-right and Europhobic parties in the European Union.
But Putin's assault on the EU doesn't end in France:
There have been unconfirmed allegations in the United States that Moscow is funding the virulently xenophobic Hungarian party Jobbik and the avowedly neo-Nazi Greek party, Golden Dawn. A discussion paper from a Putin-supporting Moscow think-tank, leaked to the German press this week, urged the Kremlin to find ways of funding other Europhobic parties such as the emerging Alternative for Germany (AfD).
The admiration of hard-line nationalist parties for Mr Putin is not only based on money. The Kremlin has gone out of its way to establish friendly ties with European political parties that share its view of the European Union as a meddlesome, US-controlled enemy of national sovereignty and destroyer of traditional religious and family values.
One of the ironies of European politics is that many of the leftist parties - such as Germany's
Die Linke ("The Left Party") are vocal supporters of Vladimir Putin and urge acceptance of his
Anschluss of Crimea.
Putin and the European far right are united by ideology: hatred of parliamentary democracy, xenophobia, homophobia and antisemitism. Marine Le Pen put it best:
Ms Le Pen, who has made two visits to Moscow in 18 months, says that Mr Putin is a “defender of the Christian heritage of European civilisation”.