Former Prime Minister François Fillon, who now sits in a large private Russian group, drew new criticism on Thursday February 24 after deploring “the refusal of Westernersto listen to Russian demands concerning NATO.
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“In 2014, I regretted the conditions of the annexation of Crimea and today I condemn the use of force in Ukraine“, affirmed on twitter the former Prime Minister of Nicolas Sarkozy (2007-2012). “But for ten years, I have been warning against the refusal of Westerners to take into account Russian demands on the expansion of NATO. This attitude is now leading to a dangerous confrontation that could have been avoided“, estimated François Fillon. “François Fillon is an employee of Vladimir Putin” and “We have to put an end to all these betrayals“, said on BFMTV the MEP Public Square Raphaël Glucksmann.
MP LREM Yaël Braun-Pivet, president of the Law Commission, estimated on Twitter that “No, there is no but. War is the act of whoever decides to wage it. This half condemnation does not honor you“. The number 3 of LR Aurélien Pradié estimated on Public Senate that François Fillon “no longer belongs to political life» and that he therefore had «not to comment on his situation“. LR presidential candidate Valérie Pécresse had used similar arguments on Wednesday evening, in a program on BFMTV before the invasion of Ukraine, saying that “François Fillon left politics” and “has the right to make his life, we must leave him alone“.
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François Fillon joined the board of directors of the Russian petrochemical giant Sibur in December, notably controlled by Leonid Mikhelson, one of the richest men in Russia, and Gennadi Timchenko, a close associate of President Putin, and targeted by many recent UK sanctions. Wednesday evening on LCI, the environmental candidate Yannick Jadot had qualified François Fillon as “ally of a dictator who is waging war in Europe“. Secretary of State for European Affairs Clément Beaune said on Sunday that he had made himself an “accomplice” of Vladimir Putin by joining the Sibur group.
SEE ALSO – Ukraine: “François Fillon is an accomplice of Putin”, according to Clément Beaune