French Politician’s Adventures Smell Bad
As is well known, Russia is actively using the “services” of a number of European politicians to try to undermine the position of the European Union and its member states on non-recognition of the occupation of Crimea. As a rule, such activities are based on market relations or on serious “skeletons in the closet” of European public figures.
It is therefore not surprising that the odious French MEP Thierry Mariani recently congratulated representatives of the occupation administration in Crimea on the seventh anniversary of “reunification”, abusing his ability to conduct official correspondence.
Mariani said this in an interview with the Kremlin-controlled publishing house “BALTNEWS”, as part of the “Russia Today” news agency. It will be recalled that this deputy is the president of the “Franco-Russian Dialogue Association” and an active member of the “International Association of Friends of Crimea”. These projects were created and operated under the control and at the expense of the Russian authorities, with the general goal of “justifying the attempt to annex Crimea, to reconcile Europe with it and to lift the European sanctions on Russia.
As part of this activity, Mariani has repeatedly headed illegal “delegations” of European deputies to the Crimea, mostly radical MEPs.
It will be recalled that not so long ago, Mariani was involved in lobbying for a pro-Russian resolution on the need to “recognize the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh” and initiated a “Crimean round table” between Turkey and Armenia. This simple trick of the Russian secret services was to “legitimize” Crimea as a kind of “international negotiating platform” in the vision of its authors.
In 2020, this “deputy” was also involved in organizing an “expedition” to the captured peninsula from the Russian-controlled “Foundation for the Development of Russian-French Historical Initiatives”, dedicated to the Crimean War. As a result of this propaganda campaign, French Ambassador to Russia Pierre Levy was forced to explain to “Le Figaro” that “France does not recognize the illegal annexation of Crimea by Russia and does not accept attempts to use the memory of its children”. Also due to the protests of Crimean Tatar’s public figures, the leading European publications refused to cover this “expedition” [2].
Apparently, Mariani is now extremely annoyed by the disruption of such a lucrative commercial event as the “expedition”. Therefore, in an interview with “BALTNEWS”, he discusses in detail that “minorities” in Crimea should allow the “majority to develop”.
In this respect, it is significant that in October 2015, it was Thierry Mariani who was removed from the post of Vice-President of the European People’s Party in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE). The reason for Mariani’s “disqualification” at the time was both his trips to the occupied Crimea and his statements that the Crimean Tatars allegedly had no problems with Russian punitive forces and special services.
By the way, in the role of inconvenient “minorities” Mariani obviously considers not only the Crimean Tatars, but in general all those who do not pay him. For example, in the mentioned interview, Mariani does not respect the Baltic countries, Poland “and the like”, due to which the European Union has “changed” so much.
After all, frankly, in the “ethnic question” for the real “cosmopolitan” Mariani, who was born into a family of Italian immigrants and married a Russian citizen Irina Shaikhullina, the real priority is only the amount of fees.
This can be confidently stated about the politician, deeply involved in the noisy, at the level of PACE documents, scandals with laundering of billions of dollars of Azerbaijani origin [3]; [4], and at the same time who was endowed with such an “uncorrupted” President of Armenia as Serzh Sargsyan, by the “Order of Honor”. It is noteworthy that Mariani “earned” this award as a result of two visits to Yerevan in 2011 in the status of alleged “Minister of Transport of France” [5]. This is stated in the Armenian resources, although in fact then Thierry was lucky to hold the post of six months only as a deputy profile minister.
Apparently, the “spiritual ease” with which Mariani signed millions of commercial contracts with his Yerevan divisors then outraged even his “advanced” party members.
In the future, the Armenian order did not prevent Mariani from enjoying Caucasian hospitality in the parliamentary elections in Azerbaijan, where he also acted as a “foreign observer”. However, the same Mariani annually visits Damascus and conducts “political talks” with key officials of the bloody al-Assad regime, and no more and no less – as a representative of the “Relief Society of Christians in the East” [6].
Against the backdrop of such “omnipresence”, Mariani’s public attacks on Macedonian politician Zoran Zaev, [7] who later became his country’s president and led Macedonia to NATO, [8] as well as Mariani’s recent visit to Kashmir for lunch at the Indian General Staff’s residence near the frontline with Pakistan [9] somehow do not surprise us at all.
It is obvious that if any of Ukraine’s friends have a few extra millions of dollars, then tomorrow Mariani would be just as passionate about telling from the European stands that “everything is not so clear” in Crimea. After all, such a service of the Russian special services is distinguished by the readiness to always have several sources of subsistence. Of course, supporters of the deoccupation and democratization of Crimea do not need “commercial services” of such persons as Mariani.
However, close observation of this figure allows us to say confidently that not only rubles and euros have long been rummaging in his pockets. Well, proponents of “political prostitution” like Mariani should be reminded of the sad story of Margaretha Geertruida Zelle’s “service of many lords”, who gained worldwide fame as Mata Hari after her execution.
After all, sooner or later the current curators of the “multi-machine” Thierry will be forced to make some final decision on him.
1. https://arc.construction/6591?lang=uk
2.https://arc.construction/4413
3. https://assembly.coe.int/nw/xml/XRef/Xref-XML2HTML-en.asp?fileid=27474&lang=en
4. https://www.lemonde.fr/les-decodeurs/article/2017/09/05/diplomatie-du-caviar-les-echanges-de-bons-procedes-entre-l-azerbaidjan-et-les-elus-francais_5181230_4355770.html
5. https://armenpress.am/rus/news/665336/shqanshanner-ev-medalner-fransiaci-pashtonyanerin.html
6. https://www.rtl.fr/actu/politique/l-entourage-de-fillon-se-desolidarise-du-voyage-de-thierry-mariani-en-syrie-7786602394
7. https://www.esiweb.org/newsletter/houses-cards-post-truth-politics-skopje-strasbourg
8. https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natolive/news_178675.htm?selectedLocale=en
9. https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natolive/news_178675.htm?selectedLocale=en
Source: rc.construction
