Крайно-десните фенчета на Путин в Европа се обръщат срещу него.
Marine Le Pen, the leader of the far-right National Rally party — which received a loan from a Russian bank — declared Russia’s annexation of Crimea was not illegal and visited Mr. Putin in Moscow before the last presidential elections in 2017. While she opposes NATO, Ms. Le Pen denounced Mr. Putin’s military aggression on Friday, saying, “I think that what he has done is completely reprehensible. It changes, in part, the opinion I had of him.”
Her far-right rival in the presidential campaign, Éric Zemmour, has in the past called the prospect of a French equivalent of Mr. Putin a “dream” and admired the Russian’s efforts to restore “an empire in decline.” Like many other Putin enthusiasts he doubted an invasion was in the cards and blamed the United States for spreading what he called “propaganda.”
But on Thursday he, too, denounced the invasion, saying “Russia was neither attacked nor directly threatened by Ukraine” in a speech given at a lectern that, to make things extra clear, displayed a sign reading, “I fully condemn the Russian military intervention in Ukraine.”
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Silvio Berlusconi, the former prime minister of Italy who wore furry hats with the Russian in his dacha in Sochi and received a “big bed” from Mr. Putin as a gift, has condemned the violence but had not said anything publicly about his old pal. It’s not clear whether he had reached out to Mr. Putin, but he apparently told his party’s members in a phone call that he was putting his international relations at the service of peace and the defense of Europe.
“I spoke to Berlusconi last night — he is very worried and is almost terrified by what is happening,” Giorgio Mulè, an under secretary of defense in Mr. Berlusconi’s party, said on Italian radio Friday. He added, “He just doesn’t see in Vladimir Putin the person he’d known.”
Marine Le Pen, the leader of the far-right National Rally party — which received a loan from a Russian bank — declared Russia’s annexation of Crimea was not illegal and visited Mr. Putin in Moscow before the last presidential elections in 2017. While she opposes NATO, Ms. Le Pen denounced Mr. Putin’s military aggression on Friday, saying, “I think that what he has done is completely reprehensible. It changes, in part, the opinion I had of him.”
Her far-right rival in the presidential campaign, Éric Zemmour, has in the past called the prospect of a French equivalent of Mr. Putin a “dream” and admired the Russian’s efforts to restore “an empire in decline.” Like many other Putin enthusiasts he doubted an invasion was in the cards and blamed the United States for spreading what he called “propaganda.”
But on Thursday he, too, denounced the invasion, saying “Russia was neither attacked nor directly threatened by Ukraine” in a speech given at a lectern that, to make things extra clear, displayed a sign reading, “I fully condemn the Russian military intervention in Ukraine.”
...
Silvio Berlusconi, the former prime minister of Italy who wore furry hats with the Russian in his dacha in Sochi and received a “big bed” from Mr. Putin as a gift, has condemned the violence but had not said anything publicly about his old pal. It’s not clear whether he had reached out to Mr. Putin, but he apparently told his party’s members in a phone call that he was putting his international relations at the service of peace and the defense of Europe.
“I spoke to Berlusconi last night — he is very worried and is almost terrified by what is happening,” Giorgio Mulè, an under secretary of defense in Mr. Berlusconi’s party, said on Italian radio Friday. He added, “He just doesn’t see in Vladimir Putin the person he’d known.”
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