'Shameful' Nicolas Sarkozy under fire for defending Putin's Ukraine invasion
Source: The Observer
‘Shameful’ Nicolas Sarkozy under fire for defending Putin’s Ukraine invasion
The former French president criticises EU and US support for Kyiv in his latest memoirs
Kim Willsher in Paris
Sat 19 Aug 2023 17.34 BST
Last modified on Sat 19 Aug 2023 18.51 BST
More than a decade after he left the Élysée presidential palace after one term in office Nicolas Sarkozy is, once again, making political waves in France and abroad.
The former French president’s publishers brought forward the release of his second volume of memoirs, Le Temps des Combats (The Time of Battles), today after an international row erupted over his comments on Russia and Ukraine.
Sarkozy, who said he was leaving politics in 2012, still holds political sway in France, where he has set himself up as a kingmaker to the conservative Les Republicans party for the 2027 presidential election, anointing the interior minister Gérald Darmanin as his preferred candidate.
In an interview to promote the 560-page book last week, Sarkozy defended Vladimir Putin and called for Ukraine to accept the Russian occupation of Crimea and other disputed territory. He also insisted Ukraine should not be allowed to join Nato or the European Union and should remain “neutral” to appease Russia’s fears of being surrounded by “hostile neighbours”.
In an advance copy obtained by the Observer, Sarkozy goes further, ...
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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/aug/19/shameful-nicolas-sarkozy-under-fire-for-defending-putins-ukraine-invasion
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With all of the US efforts to not join our European and Russian allies, it took the Japanese attack on the US base in Hawaii for Hitler to declare war on the US. Hawaii was not a US state at that time.
Nazi invasion of France May 1940.
US declaration of war December 11, 1941
