The new essay by Jacques Hogard, a former soldier known for his operational commitments in the Balkans, is intended to be a “critical” look at the war which is still raging in the heart of Europe. Another point of view on the actions and objectives carried out by the chancelleries on this conflict with multiple international repercussions, except that the work is written by the hand of a controversial personality who is far from unanimous .
The author, a former paratrooper officer of the Foreign Legion, whose arguments are often taken up by the far-right media sphere in France, did not hesitate to take a position in 2022 in favor of Moscow during the invasion of Ukraine by Kremlin troops. He also regularly accuses the United States on social networks of being the main responsible for this war, in particular through their policies which he considers aggressive towards Russia. Note that the ex-colonel’s remarks essentially go against the grain of the thoughts supported by other military experts, who on the contrary denounce the desires of the master of the Kremlin in this matter.
In his book, full of more or less clumsy digressions, he points out the escalation which led Putin’s troops to violate Ukraine’s borders. To believe it, the Russian president would have had no other choice but to go on the attack while Washington would be pulling the main strings of the conflict, at the same time minimizing Moscow’s responsibilities. At the same time, he considers the North Atlantic Organization (NATO) as the “armed arm of the United States”, a propaganda tool and a real threat to world stability.
The author, however, neglects to point out the responsibility of Putin as a real destabilizing agent, he who has resorted several times to violent speeches, threatening to use nuclear weapons in Europe and elsewhere in the world. Historically neutral countries, Finland and Sweden, have since joined NATO on their own for fear of seeing themselves in turn bombed by Russia. But there is not a single word of that. Basically, what interests the author is his defense of Russia, even if it means repeating the fallacious leitmotif of the Kremlin tsar who regularly accuses kyiv of being run by Nazis. In this regard, the portrait he draws of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is loaded with unfounded insinuations.
Although Jacques Hogard has knowledge of the Slavic world through his military operations carried out in former Yugoslavia, it turns into a real plea for the Moscow regime which becomes under his pen more victim than executioner. He also unabashedly takes up a conspiracy thesis considering the popular uprising of Maidan in 2013 as a fascist revolt. By discrediting the Dignity revolution, the former soldier is basically only justifying Russia’s intervention in Crimea and eastern Ukraine, then its large-scale invasion. Note that the weekly The Express identified Jacques Hogard as one of the relays of “Russian disinformation” in France in one of his recent investigations. This probably explains this.