With or without fake noses, they seek to dynamite Western unity in the face of the destructive madness of Vladimir Poutine. Out of anti-Americanism, out of hatred for our liberal democracy, those who are nicknamed the pro-Russians and the “useful idiots” of the Kremlin are active on social networks and in political spheres. We thought they were condemned to silence since the Russian invasion, they have never been so dangerous.
EPISODE 1 – Between Russia and the French far right, lasting support and a facade of mistrust
EPISODE 2 – War in Ukraine: when Russophiles insist on boasting of a “powerful Russia”
EPISODE 3 – Idriss Aberkane, Silvano Trotta… When the conspiracy joins the pro-Kremlin argument
EPISODE 4 – War in Ukraine: when pacifism plays into the Kremlin’s game
EPISODE 5 – “Putinophiles in the army”: these French officers who lean for Russia
EPISODE 6 – From Michel Onfray to Emmanuel Todd: anti-Americanism, a hyphen of pro-Russian discourse
In his offices not far from the very chic Place Vendôme in Paris, Jean-Pierre Thomas likes to welcome his visitors with a cup of tea served in Lomonosov porcelain. Finer, more bluish than that of Limoges. It’s been a long time since the former UDF deputy from the Vosges left the political arena for the backwater of business. Spent a time with the Lazard investment bank, his favorite playground for ten years has been Russia. In 2011, he was commissioned by Nicolas Sarkozy to rebuild the links of Franco-Russian economic cooperation. “At the time, Moscow was very oriented towards the West. We had even begun to reflect with President Medvedev’s teams on the creation of a free trade area between Russia and Europe”, explains Jean-Pierre Thomas. Between the French and the Kremlin, the current passes so well that he is appointed to the Board of Directors of the giant of aluminum Rusal. In early 2019, he even took over the presidency before being brutally dislodged a few weeks later by the American administration, which demanded his departure in exchange for an easing of the sanctions weighing on the company. Since the outbreak of the war at the end of February 2022, Jean-Pierre Thomas has spaced out his visits to Moscow but has not forgotten his mission: to serve as an intermediary between French companies and the entire Russian ecosystem. “I’m here to help the French boxes. The interest for us is to keep our positions,” he assures L’Express.
Jean-Pierre Thomas is one of the leaders of this club of “businessmen” that the fighting in Ukraine has not really shaken. Certainly, under media pressure, big names like François Fillon or Henri Proglio have resigned from the positions they held on the boards of directors of large Russian groups, but a small army of bankers, lawyers, business introducers, facilitators experienced in the torments of the Russian administration, still prosper. “It is a service that we render to France by keeping in touch with civil society. A form of parallel diplomacy in short”, justifies the former manager of the Russian subsidiary of a large French industrial group, who remained in Moscow.
A “parallel diplomacy” which is not necessarily to the taste of the Quai d’Orsay. Some members of this club smell too much sulfur. This is the case of Emmanuel Quidet. This man is also a must in Franco-Russian business. Long at the head of the Moscow office of the firm E & Y, he directed until last September the Franco-Russian Chamber of Commerce. Not a trip of a CAC boss without the man having everything locked in advance. Except that on September 26, 2022, the name of Emmanuel Quidet appears in a decree by Vladimir Putin relating to the naturalization of around twenty foreigners. A Russian passport and a seat since the spring of 2022 on the “board” of Novatek, the Russian gas giant partner of TotalEnergies, is too much for Paris, which is demanding his resignation. A very symbolic dismissal. “Emmanuel Quidet is still very active. He was omnipresent at the recent economic summit in St. Petersburg in mid-June,” blows an observer on the spot.
Overly conspicuous intermediaries
Gilles Rémy, the founder of CIFAL, a company specializing in Franco-Russian business diplomacy, is also in the sights of the French authorities. Extremely rare, he has just been removed from the list of foreign trade advisors to France. The man had however played a major role in the sale of the two Mistral warships to Russia in 2011… sale canceled by François Hollande in 2015. If he has been more discreet in Moscow in recent weeks, it is because Turkmenistan has become his new field of action where he created the Franco-Turkmen Chamber of Commerce there. Others, like Alexandre Stefanesco, at the head of a human resources company in Moscow and who also works for European groups, do not hide their preferences. “Obviously, I’m not for the war. But the first special operation, it was the Ukrainians who carried it out in the Donbass in 2014. Today, French companies are replaced by Chinese, Turkish, Tunisian or Moroccan groups. The ecosystem is adapting to sanctions, “he explains. Ah yes, it’s true, money has no smell…