François Fillon back to the National Assembly. The former Prime Minister was heard on Tuesday, May 2, by a parliamentary commission of inquiry initiated by the National Rally (RN) on foreign interference in France. In question: its links with Moscow. Asked about his past presence on the boards of directors of Russian companies, the former candidate for the 2017 presidential election notably declared that he had “not been directly concerned by Russian interference”.
“I was listened to with President Sarkozy by the NSA”
In the introduction, the former Prime Minister first mentioned his “36 years of public life”as deputy, minister or head of government from 2007 to 2012.
“Foreign interference, yes, I encountered it, most of the time, it came from a friendly and allied country called the United States. I was listened to with President Sarkozy for five years by the NSA,” the US National Security Agency, he said.
François Fillon also mentioned “Chinese espionage” or possible “interference from countries like Turkey, Morocco, Algeria which directly give voting instructions at the time of the French elections through religious leaders” , he said again.
“I started a professional career, which concerns only me”
Questioned by the commission, he then mentioned his conversion to the private sector and his presence for a time on the board of directors of the Russian companies Sibur (petrochemicals) and Zarubezhneft (hydrocarbons), before he resigned shortly after the invasion. of Ukraine by the Russian army.
“In 2017, in the circumstances that everyone knows, I left public life and definitively; I started a professional career, which concerns only me, I am not accountable to anyone, in the natural respect for the laws of the Republic”, he underlined about his consulting activities. “If I want to sell rillettes in Red Square, I will sell rillettes in Red Square (…). This idea that because I was Prime Minister, I no longer have the right to have something professional activity whatsoever is not acceptable”, defended the former tenant of Matignon.
“There is absolutely no friction between Zarubezhneft and France, (it is) a company that does not operate in France”, but “mainly in Asia”, he underlined. “I attended a board meeting with the Zarubezhneft company” and a “videoconference meeting due to Covid from the Sibur company” before “my resignation from these two boards of directors”, “as soon as the invasion of the Ukraine”, declared François Fillon.
“I have never touched a penny of money from Russia in all my political and private life”, also made a point of specifying the former prime ministereven if he would “naturally have been remunerated” if he had “continued” to sit on these two boards of directors.
“I am not concerned by the ongoing investigations”
François Fillon was also questioned about the French company Cifal operating in Russia and targeted by a preliminary investigation by the national financial prosecutor’s office for suspicion of corruption of a foreign public official. According to a source familiar with the matter, Cifal was commissioned by the Congolese company Orion – headed by Lucien Ebata, special adviser to the President of Congo -Brazzaville Denis Sassou Nguesso – to find an investor in Russia to sell its shares in the MBK oil field to. congo. With this in mind, the manager of Cifal Gilles Rémy called on François Fillon to put him in touch with a Russian businessman. In this contract, François Fillon was remunerated as a business contributor. No suspicion of corruption currently weighs on him, said this source familiar with the matter.
“I am not concerned by the ongoing investigations, I worked for a company which is concerned by an investigation”, underlined François Fillon, who has “very great respect for Cifal and its leader”.
This commission of inquiry launched by the RN, which has been working for several weeks and must complete its work in early June, is controversial in the Assembly: the other camps in particular accuse the far right of a strategy of “diversion” in the face of accusations of proximity of the RN with the Kremlin. Before François Fillon, the deputies auditioned this Tuesday the former minister Jean-Pierre Chevènement. Former special representative of France for Russia under François Hollande and at the start of Emmanuel Macron’s first five-year term, he “absolutely challenged” any form of naivety vis-à-vis President Vladimir Poutine in the past, and claimed his role in “economic diplomacy”.
