Russia: French business circles taken between two fires

The naturalization of the president of the Franco-Russian Chamber of Commerce granted by Vladimir Putin, in the middle of the annexation referendums in Ukraine and the “partial mobilization” in Russia, is debated in the community.

by

His name, first identified by the Les Echos, is 28 e position of the presidential oukase signed on September 26 by Vladimir Putin: Emmanuel Quidet, President of the Chamber of Commerce and D ‘Franco-Russian industry (CCIFR) is one of the sixty-two foreigners “received in Russian nationality” that day. At his side, the American whistleblower Edward Snowden, whose Russian naturalization has been amply commented, but also eleven other French, for the most part of the descendants of white Russians and exiles.

m. Quidet is a figure for the French community. Arrived in Russia in the early 1990s, he co -founded the CCIFR, in 1997. Next to the oligarch and friend of Vladimir Putin Guennadi Timtchenko, he made it a tool appreciated by French and Russian businessmen for his efficiency . If it is known to be an opponent resolved to the sanctions that have been hitting Russia since 2014, its presence on this list, at the precise moment when the conflict in Ukraine and the tensions between Moscow and the West seem to reach a point of non-return , aroused a certain excitement.

“We know that there is a fidgety poutinolaters among the French in Russia. But becoming Russian now is even something else, it is a terrible symbol,” says a French businessman. Another, however also opposed to Western sanctions, explains that it has arrested in February, after the outbreak of the “special military operation” in Ukraine, the naturalization procedure he had launched.

“Maintain a link”

m. Who himself did not wish to respond to the world, but a loved one finds these criticisms unfair: “He is one of the people who have built their lives here, we do not stop that of a snap. While everything else has collapsed, it is necessary to maintain an economic link between Paris and Moscow. It is the only potential possible to rebuild, in the future, a relationship between Russia and Europe. “

These divergent assessments illustrate the fracture lines that cross the French Community of Russia. From the beginning of March, Paris encouraged the French whose presence was considered “non -essential” to leave. The departures, many, have accelerated as the companies repatriated their employees or left the Russian market.

Those who remain won the reputation of forming a last square blindly attached to the policy of the Kremlin. The results of the last French presidential election (48 % accumulated for Eric Zemmour and Marine Le Pen in the first round, in Moscow) reinforced this image. Figures in sight also assume a clear extremist line – by Xavier Moreau, also holder of a Russian passport, which was one of the “international observers” deployed during the annexation referendums led by Moscow in Ukraine.

You have 62.63% of this article to read. The continuation is reserved for subscribers.