On the “Russian factor”and courtesanship

France has been considered a defender of freedom in the whole world for a long time. It is no coincidence that the French Republic’s motto liberte, egalite, fratertine has “liberty” in the first place. Everyone knows that France supported the American Revolution and then gave the Statue of Liberty to the United States as a present.

It seems that the same attitude should have dominated in relations between France and Ukraine, which gained independence in 1991. Formally, France recognized our independence, but in reality, the then president Jacques Chirac considered Ukraine to be a part of Russia. In particular, he stated this in a conversation with US president George Bush Jr., who remembered this episode in his memoir Decision Points. It is said that at one French-American meeting, Chirac proved that Ukrainian language is a dialect of Russian.

It seemed that his successor Nicolas Sarkozy is more inclined towards Ukraine. During his visit to Poland in 2008 he said: “This is crucial, that Ukraine should belong to Europe in geographic and cultural sense.” And on September 2008, when France was presiding at the Ukraine-EU Summit in Paris, a decision was made to start preparation of a new deep and comprehensive Association Agreement between the EU and Ukraine.

At the same time, Sarkozy along with Merkel spoke against granting Ukraine and Georgia NATO Membership Action Plan at the Bucharest Summit in April of 2008. And in August of 2008, at the height of the Russo-Georgian war, Sarkozy, whose country was presiding in the EU, said in Moscow during a joint press conference with the then president of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev that Russia has a right to protect Russian-speaking population, which is a rough violation of countries’ sovereignty.

The French president made another big mistake by arranging a contract for construction of Mistral ships for Russia after the latter did not adhere to the Sarkozy-Medvedev plan on withdrawal of Russia’s troops from Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which it annexed from Georgia. And the whole world heard the statement of Russian high military commanders, who said that if they had ships of such class, they would have occupied Georgia in a day. It is typical that the first constructed and ready to be sent ship Vladivostok has to be based in the Pacific Ocean and according to Japanese diplomats, is a security threat in this region. Another ship called Sevastopol will be based in Crimea, which was annexed from Ukraine, and will pose a threat not only for our country, but the whole Black Sea region. And nevertheless, recently Sarkozy, who announced his intention to come back to politics and run for presidency, stated that France must provide these ships to Russia.

It is obvious that the situation is complicated in relations between Ukraine and France, since strong Russian factor is sensed there. If right-winged parties are usually Ukraine’s allies in most countries, while leftist ones are inclined towards Russia, the situation in France now is such, that both left- and right-winged parties treat the events in Ukraine with suspicion.

Attitude of the current President Francois Hollande is skeptical, but better, than Sarkozy’s, but there are positive moments, told The Day an interlocutor from the Ukrainian MFA. According to him, we do not have an ally in France, and serious economic interest is required to change the situation for better. “Death of the head of the French company Total will worsen relations between France and Russia. If before they understood that Russian roads are a problem, now Vnukovo Airport has been added to that,” the diplomat noted.

According to him, attitude of the French towards Russia is determined by sociopolitical psychology. Until 1914, relations between France and Russia were characterized by belle epoque – beautiful era, based on the culture of courtesanship. The interlocutor pointed out that this culture was originated by a Russian courtesan, and this phenomenon historically layered on the Franco-Russian relations. This factor can be characterized as Russia’s attractiveness due to exotics of Russian culture, which became the social compound that determined the attitude of the French towards Russians. However, the diplomat noted, in general, the French are characterized by contemptuous attitude towards cultures and traditions of other countries, since they considered their culture to be the best.

Besides, Russian aristocracy and emigrants, who left Bolshevik Russia, settled down in France. It is a fact that Russian agents have been working in France since 1920. It should be taken into account that among all European countries, France is probably the most interested in Russian market.

The French do not understand the crisis, the interlocutor emphasized, that not only Ukraine, but the whole Europe is at stake, and that Russia will swallow Ukraine and move on.

Discussions about military and technical cooperation between Ukraine and France have been led for years, in two areas in particular: shipbuilding and helicopters modernization. But no progress has been achieved in either area. “We are often treated like that: they say, first do this, and then we will do that. Usually we do our part, and they don’t do theirs. French behave rationally, but at the same time they consider themselves to be above the rest,” said the interlocutor, who has a lot of experience in communicating with the French.

And a question arises: how can Kyiv establish constructive cooperation with France, which, along with Germany, is Europe’s drive, considering that this country has a weak president, and the ultra-rightist are the Kremlin’s allies and get loans from Russian banks, and the leftist have never been Ukraine’s allies? How to achieve the cancellation of Mistrals shipment to Russia, and help common French understand that Ukrainians fight for their freedom as well? Read about this in an exclusive interview to The Day given by the new Ambassador of Ukraine to France Oleh SHAMSHUR, who started working in the French Republic these days.

“If we look at the dynamics of our bilateral relations, then perhaps Ukraine has never been perceived that seriously by France before, throughout all their history. Undoubtedly, we owe this to Ukrainian people’s fight for democracy and their European choice. A considerable part of French politicians starts viewing Ukraine as an independent entity in European politics. France is trying to play an active role in diplomatic efforts for regulating the situation in eastern Ukraine and providing aid to our country to overcome the hard economic state.

“However, frankly speaking, we are at the very beginning of a rather difficult path of development of truly partnership relations. In my opinion, one of the main problems is the lack of mutual trust and understanding. The French side wants to see real steps of the new Ukrainian government in realization of the reforms program, implementation of the Association Agreement, and provision of the country’s stable development. At the same time, we cannot but notice France’s unreadiness to support providing Ukraine with a clear signal on the perspective of the EU membership and Euro-Atlantic integration of Ukraine. It is hard to get rid of the impression that the ‘Russian factor’ plays too important a role in this. The issue of possible supply of French Mistrals to the Russian Federation is very sensitive for us, though the last statement by the French president on postponing the provision of the ships indefinitely because of Russia’s behavior should be appreciated.

“Obviously, it is important to overcome the still spread in France cautious, or even skeptical attitude towards Ukraine as a country, which is doomed to exist in Russia’s shadow, with quality improvement of our informational activity. By using all available means, asymmetrically counteracting Russia’s propaganda machine, working on the regional level, we have to reach the hearts of the ordinary French, convince them that by resisting Russia’s aggression, Ukraine protects security of the whole European community too dearly.

“In this sense, activization of exchanges and contacts between the citizens of our countries on all levels should have played an important role, just as activization of cultural diplomacy on our part: we need to use the rise that Ukrainian art is going through under the influence of the latest revolutionary events. And finally, steady positive changes in attitude towards Ukraine are impossible without the increase of Ukraine’s attractiveness for France’s business circles, determination of interesting and promising for both sides directions of business and scientific cooperation.”