Former presidents or heads of government, like Nicolas Sarkozy, François Fillon or Italian Matteo Renzi, have worked for great Russian institutions. One of the vectors of the influence of Moscow in Europe.
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Nicolas Sarkozy, him, resigned before the war burst. The former head of state then occupied the duties of Special Adviser and Chairman of the Strategic Council Committee with the Board of Directors of Reso Guarantee, one of the main insurance companies in Russia. “Since the fall of 2021, he has no mandate,” says his spokesperson.
Former President of the Republic faced, in the country, to other difficulties. A few months earlier, in January 2021, the Mediapart site had revealed the opening of a preliminary investigation by the national financial prosecutor’s office for leaders of “influence traffic” and “whitening crime or offense” about A consulting contract at 3 million euros passed by Mr. Sarkozy with reso guaranteed. A company controlled by two oligarchs, the Russo-Armenian brothers Sergey and Nikolay Sarkisov, and in which the French insurer AXA holds a participation of 38.6%.
Since the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, European public opinions discover the multitude of former foreground political and economic figures that officially officiated for large Russian companies. Among them, besides Nicolas Sarkozy, the French François Fillon and Dominique Strauss-Kahn; But also the former Italian heads of government Matteo Renzi, Finnish Esko Aho and Paavo Lipponen, German Gerhard Schröder, and Austrians Christian Kern and Wolfgang Schüssel. Or Maurice Leroy, Minister of the Government of François Fillon, the British Greg Barker (former Minister of Energy) and George Osborne (former Chancellor of the Echiquier), or Karin Kneissl, named by the extreme right to The head of Austrian diplomacy in 2017.
Fillon pushed to the resignation
More than a month after the beginning of the conflict, some are still clinging to their mandates, like the former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, Chairman of the Board of Rosneft, the first oil group Russian, and the North Stream 2 shareholder committee, the Russian-German pipeline suspended from the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The majority of these personalities, however, resigned, often overcome, under the pressure of opinion or because of the economic sanctions against Moscow.
François Fillon occupied fresh two mandates with great Russian companies when Vladimir Putin triggered the war. He first integrated the Zarubezhneft Board of Directors (held by the Russian state), a company specialized in the development and exploitation of hydrocarbon deposits, in June 2021. Then, in December 2021, it has obtained a director headquarters from the Sibur Petrochemical Giant, controlled in particular by Leonid Mikhelon, one of the richest men in Russia, and by a close to President Vladimir Putin, Guennadi Tempchenko, targeted by recent sanctions of the Kingdom -Uni.
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