Unlike many of your detractors, I have always considered the National Front and the populist movement in Europe to be a constructive
reaction to statism, stifling bureaucracy, and anti-democratic elitism. Your
concern about immigration and its effect on French
society is justified; and I agree that globalism and political correctness is a
danger to the economies and freedom of the native populations of Europe.
However, with regard to your embrace of Vladimir Putin, I
believe you are badly mistaken, and I would like to
point out some facts about Eastern Europe and Ukraine of which you may be unaware. For example, you – like Putin – support
“federalism” for Ukraine. And yet, do you have any idea what effect Putin’s type of “federalism”
would have on Ukraine where Russia has already blocked off large parts for
itself? By “federalism” Putin does not
mean decentralization (which Ukraine supports); he means division and disappearance of the Ukrainian state in all
but name.
You stated that “half the country” looks toward the East
(presumably Russia), but what is the evidence for
your statement? Independent
surveys after surveys in the two easternmost regions, Luhansk and Donetsk, have always shown more than 70% support for Ukraine’s territorial
integrity and never more than 10% for “reunification” with Russia…despite two
decades of incessant Russian propaganda.
As one moves further west across the rest of the country, that
percentage (among the remaining 85% of
Ukrainians) rises sharply to over 90% support for territorial integrity.
You may find Putin’s seeming defense of traditional morality
to be refreshing; but does that mean you also agree with his suppression of
Ukrainian and Tartar minorities in Crimea? Do you not see any incongruity
between Putin’s bloody instigation of
separatism (i.e.“federalism”) in Ukraine (where it elicits very little
local enthusiasm), and the estimated 25,000 -50,000 civilians killed in his
bloody suppression of Chechen separatism?
I wonder whether you don’t find it awkward that a proud, French patriot
like yourself, in seeking to distance your country from Washington’s and
Brussels’ influence, should embrace a corrupt, repressive former KGB colonel who is an admirer of Stalin and
who does not hide his intention to recover parts of Europe that he considers to
be Russia’s birthright?
Please forgive me if this offends you, Madame, but the
country on which you so unwittingly, in concert with its enemy, urge “federalism”, provided France – already in the
11th century – with its most erudite queen (who could read and write
in five languages), and with a bible that was used at the coronation of all
your kings. France was then only emerging from the Dark Age; Russia did not
even exist; and Moscow (the name
fittingly means “dark and murky”) was little more than a muddy trading post. And 80 years before the French Revolution, Pylyp Orlyk, Ukraine’s Cossack
leader who resided for some time in France, drafted a constitution which is regarded
as first in the world to establish the separation of government powers and
decentralization of authority to towns, cities, and elected officials. You may find it informative,
therefore, to compare the Russian “Federation’s” practice of “federalism” with
that of the Ukrainian Republic.
I can understand your reluctance
to share power in Europe with a superpower like the U.S. (even though that
superpower has twice this past century saved France from foreign domination).
But if the U.S. were to leave, Russia will move quickly to replace it. You may be interested in knowing that, until
recently, students at the Moscow Institute of International Relations were
expected to mark the maps of Europe with nuclear strikes on European capitals,
and their teachers boasted that Russian tanks could reach the French port of
Brest in two weeks. The same teachers and many of the same generals are still
in active service. If such thinking were ever to inspire an actual military
operation, will France or any other European country, standing alone, without
the U.S. or NATO be capable of resisting Russia’s nuclear and conventional
might, as well as her energy-based
blackmail and coercion? Do you really
believe that democratic America’s influence in Europe is more dangerous than a
belligerent, fascist Russia rapidly building up – and using – its armed forces
on Europe’s border?
Behind Putin’s deceptive smile and
theatrics lurks a ruthless, unbalanced, predator with innocent blood on his
hands and contempt for France and Europe. You can accomplish all you want
within the framework of France and a united Europe without having to sully your
party and your country with such unworthy associates.
Sergey Baburin, a prominent leader of the Russian right, has
suggested that right-wing parties in Europe are Russia’s fifth column against
NATO and the U.S. Be careful, Madame,
that Baburin’s wishful thinking does not become such a reality.
With kind regards,
George Woloshyn
George Woloshyn is a retired naval intelligence commander and former director of U.S. National Security Preparedness and a former director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Security Investigations.
