Putin’s European pals have to eat their words
The Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine is a big
embarrassment to European politicians who got too close to Putin.
BY VICTOR JACK
February
26, 2022 12:14 pm
As Russia’s
war machine batters Ukraine in the largest invasion Europe has seen since World
War II, one group of Europeans is feeling particularly uncomfortable: Vladimir
Putin’s defenders and cheerleaders.
From
National Rally leader Marine Le Pen in France to Matteo Salvini from Italy’s
right-wing League, these politicians have spent years touting their affinity
for the Russian president, accepting Russian loans and corporate board
memberships and acting as mouthpieces for Kremlin talking points.
As Russia
massed troops around Ukraine’s borders, some of these Putin pals downplayed the
threat or accused the West of ramping up tensions. But as Putin declared war on
Kyiv and ballistic missiles rained down on Ukrainian targets, that pose became
harder to hold for this group, prompting many to backtrack from their crush on
the Kremlin and rush out statements condemning the attack.
Who are
Putin’s faithful friends in Europe? What did they say then — and what are they
saying now?
Here’s a
breakdown:
Marine Le
Pen
The
far-right leader of the National Rally party and French presidential candidate
has long enjoyed a close relationship with — and financing from — Russia. In
2017, Le Pen visited the Kremlin as her part of her presidential campaign and
backed Moscow’s 2014 annexation of Crimea.
As recently
as this month, Le Pen said she did not believe “at all” that Russia would
invade Ukraine, and condemned “a misunderstanding of the issues and thinking”
in Russia. “I don’t see what the Russians would do in Ukraine and what would be
their interest there,” she told reporters. “If I were president right now I wouldn’t
have the glacial relations that exist between Vladimir Putin and Emmanuel
Macron,” she added.
But Le Pen
about-turned Thursday, publishing a statement on her website stating there was
“no reason to justify” the invasion of Ukraine, condemning it as “unjustifiable
without reservations,” and called for its “immediate end.”
Eric Zemmour
The French
far-right pundit, currently polling third in the 2022 presidential race, has
previously said he “admired” Vladimir Putin as a “patriot” and called his
concerns around NATO expansionism in Ukraine and Georgia “completely
legitimate” — adding that it was “France’s role to say this.” He also said in
December he was happy to “bet that Russia will not invade Ukraine.”
It was a
bad bet. On Thursday, Zemmour changed tack dramatically, saying he “condemned”
Russia’s invasion “without reservations,” and slammed it as “unjustifiable.”
Matteo
Salvini
A former
Italian deputy prime minister and leader of Italian far-right League party,
Matteo Salvini has been described as Putin’s man in Europe.
Salvini has
long declared his admiration for the Russian president — which extended to him
wearing a T-shirt of Putin on Red Square — and his party enjoys warm relations
with Moscow. In 2017, he signed a cooperation agreement with Putin’s United
Russia party, while party officials were probed for signing a secretive oil
deal with the Kremlin in 2018 worth millions of euros.
But the
far-right leader took to Twitter on Thursday to “condemn any military
aggression” in Ukraine after Putin’s attack, and called for a “common response
from allies,” later posting a video on him bringing flowers to the Ukrainian
embassy in Rome.
Miloš Zeman
Miloš
Zeman, president of the Czech Republic and well-known for his provocative and
incendiary remarks, has enjoyed notoriously warm ties with Moscow. Zeman, who
ascended to the largely ceremonial role back in 2013, has described the
post-2014 war in Donbass as a “civil war between two groups of Ukrainian
citizens” and spurred widespread protests over remarks he made in support of
Russia last year.
Zeman was
amongst the only leaders to to pay a state visit to Moscow in 2015 after the
annexation of Crimea in 2015, saying the visit marked an “expression of
thankfulness that we in this country don’t have to speak German if we were
obedient collaborators of Aryan descent.”
But amid
the invasion Thursday, he turned on Russia and called for EU countries to cut it
off from the SWIFT payment system, saying the attack was a “crime against
peace” and calling Putin a “madman.”
Alex
Salmond
The former
leader of the Scottish National Party, Alex Salmond has enjoyed unusually
friendly ties with the Kremlin. Following Moscow’s annexation of Crimea in
2014, Salmond said he admired “certain aspects” of Putin’s politics and said
his patriotism was “entirely reasonable.” In 2017, the Scottish politician was
slammed for agreeing to launch a new weekly program with Russian state-owned
broadcaster RT called ‘The Alex Salmond Show.’
But Salmond
buckled on Thursday, suspending the show amid the assault on Ukraine, insisting
that though there had never been “a single piece of editorial interference” in
his program, he could not carry on with the broadcast “until peace is
re-established.”
Gerhard
Schröder
Gerhard
Schröder, Germany’s chancellor between 1998 and 2005, is considered to be close
to Putin and has a place on the boards of Russia’s two biggest state-owned
energy companies, Rosneft and Gazprom. Schröder once called the Russian
president a “flawless democrat” and in 2018, the Wall Street Journal called him
“a luxury-loving, paid-up, swaggering instrument of Vladimir Putin.”
Schröder
told his LinkedIn followers Thursday “there have been many mistakes on both
sides,” but nonetheless condemned the invasion, arguing “Russia’s security
interests do not justify the use of military means either.”
“The war
and the suffering it causes for the people of Ukraine must end as soon as possible,”
he said. “That is the responsibility of the Russian government.”
Boris
Johnson
U.K. Prime
Minister Boris Johnson came out in full-throated condemnation of Putin almost
immediately after the Russian president recognized the two breakaway republics in
eastern Ukraine as independent Monday. The British leader has since slapped
sanctions on Moscow and suggested the Russian President should face war crime
charges as a “blood-stained aggressor.”
But Johnson
was not always so critical of Russia, once praising the leader’s “ruthless
clarity” in backing Syrian dictator Bashar Assad in eliminating Islamic State
militia. Johnson has long been friends with prominent Russian oligarchs and
opposition parties in the U.K. estimate that his Conservative Party has received
almost £2 million from Russian elites since he became prime minister.
Jean-Luc
Mélenchon
Mélenchon,
the far-left politician also running for France’s highest office this year, has
previously said French politicians “have a duty to ensure that Ukraine does not
enter NATO in the East” and has argued Russia “is not an enemy but a partner.”
But the
leader of La France Insoumise tentatively performed a volte-face on Thursday,
publishing a statement saying that Russia “takes responsibility for a terrible
setback in history” by attacking Ukraine, which he argued “creates the
immediate danger of a generalized conflict that threatens all of humanity.”
François
Fillon
Former
French Prime Minister and disgraced presidential candidate François Fillon
joined the board of Russian petrochemical company Sibur in 2021, following his
nomination by the Kremlin to the board of state-owned company Zaroubezhneft
earlier that year. Sibur is chaired by Russian oligarchs Leonid Mikhelson and
Gennady Timchenko, both of whom were placed under sanctions by the U.K. this
week.
But on
Thursday the right-wing politician wrote on Twitter that he “regretted” the
annexation of Crimea in 2014 and now “condemns the use of force in Ukraine.”
Fillon announced Friday he was planning to step down from both roles, arguing
Putin “is the only one guilty of having triggered a conflict that could have
been, that should have been, avoided.”
Viktor
Orbán
The
long-time prime minister of Hungary, Viktor Orbán has maintained a close
relationship with Putin, which is not just down to them being ideological kindred
spirits. Orbán negotiates long-term gas contracts with Russia, in return for
which Hungary gets lower prices than its European partners.
Orbán has
boasted about meeting the Russian president 12 times during his tenure, most
recently at the start of this month when he asked Putin to boost the volume of
gas exports to his country. “Difficult times, but we are in very good company,”
the Hungarian premier said.
Orbán was
forced to adopt a different posture Thursday, however, slamming Moscow’s
actions in a Facebook video, while saying Hungary would not send weapons to
Ukraine. “Together with our European Union and NATO allies, we condemn Russia’s
military attack,” he said. He also joined EU leaders later that evening in
signing off on a large-scale sanctions package targeting multiple sectors of
the Russian economy.
Sem comentários:
Enviar um comentário