A dark and familiar cloud is hanging over France's high-stakes presidential election

France's upcoming presidential election has turned into a de facto referendum on whether to halt or strengthen the nationalist fervor sweeping the west that propelled US President Donald Trump into the White House last year and spurred Britain's exit from the European Union.

Russian president Vladimir Putin, who has been accused of meddling in both the US election to help elect Trump and the Brexit vote to help fracture the EU, has two horses in France's race — the far-right National Front leader Marine Le Pen, and the center-right Republicans candidate Francois Fillon.

Both candidates have touted policies that are at once Russia-friendly and hostile to two institutions Putin abhors: the EU and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). They also oppose western sanctions on Russia and advocate a closer relationship between France and Moscow.

Le Pen has vowed to pull France out of both the EU and NATO, comparing Europe to a prison and calling NATO "obsolete." Fillon's view of the institutions is more nuanced, but he has indicated that he would like to see the EU's power diminished and has characterized NATO as an arm of "American imperalism."

Le Pen — who has said she admires Putin and thinks sanctions on Russia are "completely stupid" — traveled to Moscow in late March to meet with the Russian president. Fillon, who is a tireless defender of Kremlin policies: He has sought to justify Russia's invasion of eastern Ukraine, demanded that the US lift its Crimea-related sanctions, and has advocated for France to realign with Russia, Iran, and Syrian president Bashar Assad to fight terrorism.

The stakes are high for Russia. Depending on who wins, the French election could set the tone for a broader European shift toward Moscow and away from Washington. It is no surprise, then, that both the French and English-language versions of Russia's state-sponsored news agencies, including Sputnik and Russia Today (RT), have been conspicuously bolstering the Kremlin's preferred candidates.

RT featured Le Pen's statement about Thursday's terror attack in Paris at the top of its site on Friday: "Restore France’s borders, expel foreign nations on watchlist – Le Pen to French govt," the headline read. The article made no mention of the statement released by her centrist opponent, Emmanuel Macron, in the wake of Thursday's attack: "

"It's enough to see which candidates, Marine Le Pen or Francois Fillon, Russia expresses preference for in the French electoral campaign," Ayrault told the French Journal du Dimanche. "Whereas Emmanuel Macron, who is pro-Europe, is being targeted by cyberattacks."

"This form of interference in French democratic life is unacceptable and I denounce it," he added.

Another study published by the Hungary-based private research group Bakamo concluded that several "alternative" news sources widely shared on Facebook and Twitter — whose stated aim is to "counter the narrative of the traditional media" — cite Russian sources to justify their narratives.

French newspaper Le Monde recently compiled a list of the most egregious examples of fake news, including one site, "Wikistrike," which deemed Marine Le Pen the winner before any voting had actually taken place. (These results, it said, were based on electronic ballots that had been "scanned in the USA, opposite the CIA headquarters.")

The impact of this "junk news" pushed by the far-right — much of it inspired or created by Russian disinformation — on the outcome of the French elections will be difficult to measure. In an encouraging sign, experts say that French citizens, on average, have shared far fewer fake stories in the run-up to their election than Americans did in the runup to theirs.

Russian bots and trolls, meanwhile, are already shifting their attention to another high-stakes European election.