Former Prime Minister’s mandates with Russian oil companies Sibur and Zarubezhneft embarrassed the Republicans’ candidate, who tries to maintain his campaign despite the international context.
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The pressure became too strong. Criticized, consulted with all sides as “Russian employee”, François Fillon ended up, after a day when the War conducted by the Russians in Ukraine had a new escalation with murderer bombings in Kiev, capital of the country. The former Prime Minister announced Friday 25 February, in a tribune that the Sunday newspaper will publish in full Sunday, its resignation of the boards of directors of two Russian oil companies – Sibur and Zarubezhneft -, at least one of which has Proven links with the Vladimir Putin regime.
“Today, the war is back in the heart of Europe, it writes. It is a collective failure but in the hierarchy of responsibilities, Vladimir Putin is the only one guilty of having engaged a conflict that Could have – who should have – been avoided. In foreign politics, we must do with the realities. According to the interests of France and those of the country’s security, “writes the former Prime Minister in the weekly. A significant change in the previous message that Mr. Fillon had relayed on social networks the day before. He regretted the “Crimea’s conditions of annexation” and felt that the situation was, at least in part, due to “the attitude” of the West.
removing the polemic
For this and for its maintenance on the board of directors of the two Russian groups, the former Prime Minister had drawn the wrath of French politicians, first, and then foregoing figures from the international scene . Until risk being sanctioned by the British authorities. Which had planned to crack down on the interests of “those who cooperated with the economic interests of Vladimir Putin”, as explained by Conservative MP Tom Tugendhat in an interview Thursday in Channel 4 . With the former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, François Fillon was the only one not to have leaving his duties related to Russian groups. The former Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi or the Austrian Chancellor Christian Kern resigned earlier, arguing the primacy of Europe’s interests in the face of Russian aggression at its doors.
If this decision makes sense to France, of which Mr. Fillon is the former Prime Minister, it is of particular importance to the Republican Party (LR) of which it is derived. And especially for Valérie Pécresse, the candidate of the presidential ballot training. The shadow of François Fillon has been planning since the beginning of the Russian invasion in Ukraine on the candidate’s campaign. His loved ones swallowed, however, to try to remove the polemic François Fillon from his candidacy, repeating that the former Prime Minister had left French political life and was not in the countryside. The candidate LR holding a firm position on Russia.
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