Emmanuel Macron voting poster
© REUTERS/ Gonzalo Fuentes
Hillary Clinton's former campaign aides on Friday accused Russia of masterminding a massive leak of French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron's campaign emails despite pre-election silence in France.

Tens of thousands of emails were purportedly stolen from accounts of Macron's political movement and posted online late on Friday. The campaign confirmed it had been the target of a massive hacking attack but said the leak was laced with fake papers to spread lies ahead of this Sunday's voting.

"Putin is waging war against Western democracies and our President is on the wrong side," Clinton's former press secretary Brian Fallon tweeted.

"For those who thought Russia was dialing back. Macron's French presidential campaign emails leaked online," Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook said on social media.

โ€‹โ€‹Zac Petkanas, the rapid-response director of Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign said on Twitter that "Russians just hacked Macron to help another puppet get elected."

โ€‹The US intelligence has accused Moscow of orchestrating Clinton campaign leaks last year to undermine her bid against eventual victor Donald Trump. No evidence was provided.

The Macron email dump took place just hours before a media blackout of campaign propaganda came into being in France. The French will go to the polls this Sunday to choose between Macron, a centrist endorsed by Barack Obama, and his right-wing rival Marine Le Pen, who called for a dialogue with Russia.

Russian officials have repeatedly denied the allegations of meddling in foreign elections, calling them absurd. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at the Munich Security Conference in February there were "no facts, just accusations" against Moscow.