Jean-Maurice Ripert is a diplomat, former French ambassador to Russia from 2013 to 2017, at the time of the annexation of Crimea and the war in the Donbass, then to China between 2017 and 2019. He analyzes the attitude of the president Russian and his vision of Europe.
How did the mutual misunderstanding between Vladimir Putin and Europe come about?
Vladimir Putin came to power in 1999, at a time when Europe was strengthening its union, while Russia mainly maintained bilateral relations with each of the States. He was a KGB lieutenant-colonel, a past master in the art of networks, in a system of predation born in the 1990s, particularly in Saint Petersburg, and who did not hesitate, very quickly, to show that he would use force, like in Chechnya.
We accepted him as the president of Russia. We badly anticipated the fact that the country was going to return to its old demons.
Mr. Putin has continued his predatory policy as far as possible. He ended up caricaturing himself. He did not perceive that the European Union [UE] was becoming a power and that the Russia-US duopoly was itself evolving. He did not understand that the world had changed.
Europe was the first economic partner, the first investor. Russia should be the richest country on the planet, but it is still a rich country inhabited by poor people. I remind you in passing that it is the only place in the world where you can table a bill in Parliament in the morning and see it promulgated the same evening – the Russians have nicknamed this “crazy printer”.
For you, has Mr. Putin changed?
I don’t believe for a second that he has changed. Interrogates to find out if Vladimir Putin was mad, the neuropsychiatrist Boris Cyrulnik replied that he had the rationality of his delirium. The Russian president is perfectly rational inside reasoning that has little relation to reality.
Who are those who hold Russia today? The nationalist extreme right, the oligarchs dependent on Mr. Putin and the security forces. I don’t know how long this can last. Since the invasion of Ukraine in late February, Russians have voted with their feet; hundreds of thousands of them have left.
Vladimir Putin’s project is based on a nationalist myth, on a form of Russian empire, in the ethnic sense of the term. The authorities were with regard to the European ambassadors permanently in the confrontation, the dispute and the recriminations. Everything was good to destabilize them and create a balance of power. I myself have often been summoned on the spot at odd hours by deputy ministers for anything and everything. It was a form of intimidation.
You have 58.99% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.