Mireille Mathieu emerges from the silence. This Thursday, August 18, the singer with 200 million albums sold spoke in the columns of the daily Nice morning, in particular on Vladimir Putin, for the first time since February 24. Before the conflict in Ukraine, she had not hesitated to say that she “admired[ait] Vladimir Poutine “. If the popular singer around the world – and especially in Russia – does not deny her words, she adapts them.
Asked by our colleagues to find out if she still “admires” the head of the Kremlin, the interpreter of “La Paloma adieu” assures us that this opinion “is personal”. “My relationship with [Vladimir Poutine, NDLR] is different from that of the simple head of state, since he welcomed me personally several times when I sang [en Russie] “, she defends herself. And to continue, declaring that she “loves the Russian and Ukrainian people very much”.
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“We must banish the word “war””
“Russia is a great country. The Russians love France, and it’s a people that remains dear to my heart,” confides Mireille Mathieu. However, she does not elude the fact that the head of the Kremlin exercises great control over his population. “They walk 100% behind [leur] President. It’s typically Russian. If you don’t know the country well, you can’t understand that, ”she judges.
Usually invited to the Spasskaya Tower Festival, the artist concedes that the “current context” makes such a trip “complicated”. Throughout the interview, Mireille Mathieu does not use the term “war”. She even goes further. “The word ‘war’ must be banned from the dictionary”. She calls “from [ses] wishes” to “a meeting between President Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart”. Such an interview seems unlikely at this time. Tensions are still at their highest, in particular because of the regular bombardments on the nuclear power plant in Zaporizhia, in the south-east of Ukraine.
Another celebrity close to Russia, Gérard Depardieu had – from the end of March – denounced the “unacceptable excesses” of President Vladimir Poutine. A statement all the more noticeable as the French actor has held Russian nationality since 2013.
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