More embarrassing for the French government is the stand taken by Jean-Pierre Chevènement, a former Socialist defense minister who was appointed special representative for economic diplomacy in Russia by Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius in 2012. An advocate of France’s independent diplomacy, Mr. Chevènement explained in an interview with Le Courrier de Russie, a Russian-based newspaper, that “an independent France” needs “a strong Russia”; Russia’s annexation of Crimea was a mere “infringement of the principle of state’s sovereignty.”

This fondness for Russia makes for strange bedfellows. Mr. Putin’s staunchest ally in France is Marine Le Pen, the head of the far-right National Front, whom Moscow has been actively courting for some time. Ms. Le Pen admires the Russian president’s “patriotic economic model,” as well as his defense of conservative values and his stand on homosexuality. She also got a warm welcome from Mr. Naryshkin when she visited Moscow in June. And she concurred with far-left leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon when he described as an “unbearable betrayal” the decision by President François Hollande to suspend the delivery of two Mistral battleships to Russia.

Another group of friends of Russia is led by the ubiquitous Thierry Mariani, a legislator of the conservative Union for a Popular Movement, who heads the association Franco-Russian Dialogue. Mr. Mariani, who organized the 14 legislators’ trip to Moscow and is preparing for another visit in October, speaks of a “special relationship” between France and Russia that goes back to Napoleon and the Battle of Borodino in 1812.

“While Germany is Russia’s main business partner, France has a special place in Russia’s heart,” he told me. “This is why the Russians are so disappointed that we are implementing the sanctions.” He laments the fact that, unlike the U.S. Congress, the French Parliament has not debated the sanctions on Russia. He therefore sees nothing wrong in meeting with a blacklisted Russian official, saying, “I couldn’t care less about sanctions decided by techno-structures in Brussels.”

If this pro-Russia current crosses party lines from the far right to the far left, it is because it is based on a strong suspicion that the United States wants to return to the Cold War and drag Europe in with it. Businessmen might not have such ideological motivations; many are privately critical of Mr. Putin’s erratic behavior, but argue that their companies are much more exposed in Russia than American businesses and that they need to protect their investments. Politicians and commentators on the Web take another stance: They blame European leaders for “submitting” to America’s rule and accuse the French media of being manipulated. While the older generation refers to a “Gaullist tradition” of independence, the fact that this school of thought has spread to the younger generation shows that Russian efforts to penetrate popular political movements have had some success.