 However, Jean-Luc Mélenchon defends himself by considering that Putin is a president elected by the ballot box and that one must therefore treat with him as with a legitimate president.He is totally opposed to his domestic policy and says that if he were Russian, he would be in opposition; he takes for example the fact that his friend of the Russian Left Front, Sergey Udaltsov, is imprisoned in Russia.Jean-Luc Mélenchon is often highly critical of the media, and has before asked his supporters to monitor and film journalists, especially of "Le Monde" and "Libération".