Former Prime Minister François Fillon announced to the Sunday newspaperFriday, February 25, his upcoming resignation from the boards of directors of the Russian petrochemical companies Sibur and hydrocarbons Zarubezhneft, following the invasion of Ukraine by troops from Moscow. Mr. Fillon must return in more detail to his decision in a column published on Sunday by the weekly, some extracts from which have already been posted online.
“Today, war is back in the heart of Europe. It’s a collective failure but, in the hierarchy of responsibilities, Vladimir Putin is the only one guilty of having triggered a conflict which might have – which should have – been avoided.he wrote, before adding: “Under these conditions, I cannot continue my participation on the boards of the Russian companies Zarubezhneft and Sibur. »
“I do it with sadness”
“I do this with sadness, because I met men and women of great value there, open to the world, driven by the success of their business, eager to bring it to the highest international standards, including on the subjects of ‘environment and social responsibility’, specifies the former Prime Minister of Nicolas Sarkozy. Traveling to Normandy, the Republican candidate, Valérie Pécresse, said she spoke with Mr. Fillon and confirmed the information published in the Sunday newspaper.
Mr. Fillon had joined in December the board of directors of Sibur, notably controlled by Leonid Mikhelson, one of the richest men in Russia, and Gennadi Timchenko, a close friend of President Putin, targeted by recent sanctions from the United Kingdom. United.
A few months earlier, in June 2021, he had joined the same body of Zarubezhneft, a company specializing in the development and exploitation of hydrocarbon deposits, particularly abroad, owned by the Russian state.
He had drawn criticism on Thursday following coming out of his silence on the invasion of Ukraine. “In 2014, I regretted the conditions of the annexation of Crimea and today I condemn the use of force in Ukraine”had he claimed on Twitter. “But, for ten years, I have been warning once morest the refusal of Westerners to take into account Russian demands on the expansion of NATO. This attitude today leads to a dangerous confrontation that might have been avoided.he thought.
La République en marche MP Yaël Braun-Pivet, chair of the National Assembly’s Legislation Committee, replied in estimating on Twitter what “No, there are no buts. War is the act of whoever decides to wage it. This half-condemnation does not honor you”. The senator from Vendée and close to Mr. Fillon, Bruno Retailleau, was nevertheless one of the few, in his political camp, to explain that it was “to know him badly [que] to think that he would accept a position in a company that might harm his country”.
