“It’s worrying but it’s not surprising,” says the former French ambassador to Russia

Jean-Maurice Ripert, French ambassador and former ambassador to Russia and China, was the guest of “8h30 franceinfo”, Sunday March 3, 2024.

Jean-Maurice Ripert, French ambassador and former ambassador to Russia and China, was the guest of “8h30 franceinfo”, Sunday March 3, 2024. Suspicions of espionage in Germany, power of Vladimir Putin, situation in Gaza… He answered questions from Agathe Lambret and Jean-Rémi Baudot.

Intercepted German exchanges: an indicator of “the seriousness of the situation”

“It’s worrying but it’s not surprising”believes Jean-Maurice Ripert, regarding the broadcast from Russia of confidential exchanges between several German officers on arms deliveries to Ukraine.“It’s the general surprise that surprises me“, continues the ambassador, rather surprised that “the German army and the German intelligence services were trapped”.

For the diplomat, this shows once again “the seriousness of the situation and the fact that it is time to realize that European democracies are dealing with a power that will stop at nothing”.

“Russia today is a dictatorship”

Asked about the thousands of Russians who paid tribute to the opponent Alexeï Navalany, despite the threat of police repression, Jean-Maurice Ripert believes that “16 000 people in the street to brave, it’s colossal” even in a big country like Russia. “Russia today is a dictatorship”adds the diplomat, according to whom, despite everything, “the protest [en Russie] never stopped”.

“Today Putin is forbidding us to commemorate the victims of the gulag. The masks are falling. Vladimir Putin is Stalin.”

Jean-Maurice Ripert

at franceinfo

Situation in Gaza: “the truce is not enough”

Jean-Maurice Ripert pleads for the International Criminal Court (ICC) “urgently open an investigation against all those responsible for these massacres, whether Israelis or Palestinians, whether civilians or military,” while Israeli bombings continue in the Gaza Strip, threatened with famine according to the UN.

War between Israel and Hamas: Jean-Maurice Ripert demands that “the ICC urgently open an investigation against those responsible for the massacres, whether Israeli or Palestinian” and that “the United Nations exercise a civilian mandate for five years and military in Gaza. pic.twitter.com/wlKcYEI46X

— franceinfo (@franceinfo) March 3, 2024

A “truce” between Israel and Hamas during Ramadan “not enough”estimates the diplomat, as negotiations resume this Sunday in Cairo. “We need an immediate ceasefire, the immediate release of hostages, exchanges of prisoners” and an ICC investigation, he explains. Another proposal from the diplomat: “That the United Nations exercise a civil and military mandate in Gaza for five years”even if it means “force the United States to accept”.