Ukraine: Fillon Says “He Was Wrong” About Putin’s Intentions – The HuffPost

PATRICK KOVARIK / AFP

UKRAINIAN CRISIS – “Vladimir Putin is the only culprit to have started a conflict which could have, which should have been avoided.” here’s how Francois Fillon begins a column published this Saturday, February 26 in the Sunday newspaperhim the former Prime Minister who nevertheless forged links with the master of the Kremlin and his sidekick Dmitri Medvedev.

“I have for a long time established a close relationship with Russia”, he assumes in this text. A writing that he broadcasts the day after the announcement of his decision to give up two controversial terms. Because since June and November 2021 respectively, the former candidate in the presidential election had previously sat on the board of directors of two Russian giants: Zarubezhneft and Sibur, which specialize in hydrocarbons and petrochemicals.

A privileged position which did not prevent him from being “mistaken” on the intentions of the Russian president, as he also admits. “I had kept the memory of an authoritarian Vladimir Putin, demanding for his country but rational”, he explains, thinking that “reason” would have prevailed in the mind of the head of state. And to qualify the invasion of Ukraine as a “historic fault” which “threatens European civilization”.

It is moreover from this point of view, and because he sees in the aggression against Ukraine an attack against Europe and therefore France that François Fillon justifies his resignation, evoking no regret as to the action of the two companies. “My decision to join them was professional, that of resigning today is political”, he assures, even boasting of thus serving “the best interests of the country”.

See also on the HuffPost: “Sanctions must be tougher”: These Ukrainians in France are calling for help