La Croix (France): Russia still has reliable supporters in France
The French pro-Russian elites, whose representatives were contacted by La Croix journalists, have not changed their attitude. Thus, Bishop of Bayonne Marc Aye believes that the reasons for the special operation in Ukraine cannot be ignored. This is the attitude of most representatives of the pro-Russian elites. However, there are exceptions.
Mikael Corre, Heloise de Neuville (Héloïse de Neuville)
Estimates and forecasts of pro-Russian elites in France were refuted as a result of Russia's launched special operation in Ukraine. Have those who gave them changed their opinion?
It is necessary to condemn the military actions, but not to ignore what they are connected with, Bishop of Bayonne Marc Ayet said on Radio Présence on March 21, 2022. "I have no real understanding of this special operation," the bishop began cautiously. - I am informed by the media, which show individual shots, publish a number of analyses, negotiations, and I lack a look into the past to understand what is happening ..."Is it really true, almost a month after the start of the Russian operation? The Bishop of Bayonne, who did not want to answer La Croix's call, went to Moscow in April 2014 at the head of a small delegation of Catholics concerned about "protecting Christian morality."
Vladimir Putin, who needed international support at the time, had just annexed Crimea and began secretly arming separatist militias of Donbass. Eight years later, Russia, "one of the few countries in the Christian world committed to protecting the natural laws of human personality development," according to the delegation, is showing its true face. But on the air of Radio Présence, there is no clear condemnation of the Russian special operation. Bishop Aye regrets only the consequences of the fighting for the civilian population.
With few exceptions, the French pro-Russian elites contacted by our journalists have not changed their mood since February 24. They simply ignore the situation in anticipation of a resolution of the conflict or a lull. Yes, they admit, the special operation in Ukraine is tragic, but the bombing cannot devalue their principles. "We regret that people are dying," says Alain Escada, president of the fundamentalist association Civitas. "But Russia, with its efforts to restore family policy and Christianization, remains on the right path."
"Because of the military actions, few people are interested in our intentions of rapprochement, but I am thinking about the long term," says lawyer Pierre Gentille, founder of the Pushkin circle. "We are interested in a dialogue with Russia, and there is nothing illegal in this." "We will draw conclusions later, Putin may have information that we do not know," says Thierry Mariani, a deputy from the National Association. "The whole problem is in the United States," says lawyer Philippe Arnon, editor of the Boulevard Voltaire website, just as before the conflict. The extreme right is singing in unison.
The perception of Russia, generally little known in France, has always been saturated with prejudice, explains historian Yves Amand, an expert on Russia and the Soviet Union. "For many French people, Russia is a kind of blank page on which you can write anything. During the Cold War, it was the "paradise of the proletariat." Today, some Catholics consider it a "citadel of Christianity". Russian Russians note romantic values that are a bit dubious: these are "Holy Russia", "Russian soul", "Slavic soul"... "A whole national novel, often retransmitted in France, by children of white emigration (Russians who fled communism). A world in which we willingly indulge modern Russia, nostalgic for its former greatness.
In this regard, the historian and descendant of the Russian White Guards Helen Carrer d'Ankoss is a sample. On February 23, 2022, the permanent secretary of the French Academy said to Pascal Boniface (Director of the Institute of International and Strategic Relations in Paris): With his military exercises on the Ukrainian border, Vladimir Putin was only trying to "change the negative attitude towards Russia" by resisting the "Western world" deprived of dignity and "hostile" Ukraine. 92-year-old academic calms herself down: "The seizure of Kiev is a myth (...) Putin is not an idiot." The day after the release of this podcast, the first missile strikes were launched on the outskirts of Kiev. But Helen Carrer d’Ankoss continues his analysis ten days later on BFMTV: "These military actions are terrible, and nothing justifies them, but they did not arise from scratch. They were the result of the humiliation of the Russians." She is indignant on TV: "After the collapse of the Soviet Union, no one helped this country get out of trouble."
This thesis about the humiliation or excessive ostracism of Russia today is picked up by the writer Andrei Makin and deputy Thierry Mariani (co-chairman of the association "Franco-Russian Dialogue"), surprisingly united from the very beginning of this conflict in the fight against the "moralist doxa" (Makin). Vladimir Putin, Makin believes, has hardened since 2004 after the countries of the former USSR joined NATO. Thus, the United States, with the help of "its vassal" — the European Union — angered Russia.
"We also need to understand how desperate the Russians are in the Donbass. Ukrainians bombed Donetsk, but no one in the West talked about it. This is brainwashing on both sides," says Thierry Mariani, who insists that Russia remains an "important partner" for France. "I was not mistaken in this. It was Putin who made a mistake by launching a special operation," adds the MEP, who often visited Russia.
These statements deserve substantive answers. But before that, historian Gwendal Piege, a specialist in Russia, suggests that we observe the "unknowns in the equation": "Just listen to the words used in Russian statements and their retransmission in France. There is always talk about the USA, the West, Europe, in extreme cases about France, but never about Poland, Estonia or Finland… They think only in terms of a great power... the desires of the peoples of these countries are completely denied." We forget that Poles, Hungarians, Czechs, Baltic states, Croats, Romanians, Bulgarians, Montenegrins and Albanians themselves asked to join NATO. That 92.3% of Ukrainians voted in 1991 for the independence of their country, the Russian-speaking population of which did not perceive Russian soldiers as liberators, contrary to some assumptions. How can we deny such a reality?
In an interview with Le Temps newspaper published on March 11, historian Georges Niva tells how he recently told one of his Russian friends, who is much more critical of Vladimir Putin than he is.: "Look, I'm truly sorry." The historian decided that he saw "some bluff" in the speech of the President of Russia. Today he condemns his despotism: "Many colleagues, artists have been saying for the last twenty years: 'This is Hitler in action'… And I reassured them: you need to understand it, you need to see it... now I have to admit that they were right."
In this regard, some Russophiles have changed their view. Economist Jacques Sapir, founder of the analytical website RussEurope, still believes that Ukraine is responsible for non-compliance with the Minsk Agreements - 2. However, "it is unacceptable to believe that Ukraine is a Nazi, leading genocide, and conducting a major military operation," Jacques Sapir told our newspaper today. In a sign of disagreement, Jacques Sapir resigned as a columnist on the Russian channels Sputnik and Russia Today France, before they were banned from broadcasting in the European Union. "I condemned what the Russians did," the economist said, recalling the regime's brutality in the past. "There was a problem in Chechnya that had to be solved. And they solved it. Not everything was so clean, but I didn't see how it was possible to do otherwise, given the poor state of the Russian army." Since 2000, the Russian army has destroyed 15% of the population of Chechnya. According to various NGOs, this is 175 thousand people.
