French MPs call to lift Russia sanctions

The French National Assembly on Thurday (28 April) adopted a resolution calling for the lifting of EU i sanctions against Russia.

The resolution, which is non-binding and was voted against the French government's advice, was adopted by 55 votes in favour, 44 against, and two abstentions.

"This is totally unhoped for," the promoter of the text, Thierry Mariani from the centre-right Les Republicains party (LR), told Le Figaro newspaper after the event.

Only a minority of the assembly’s 577 MPs participated in the meeting, which mobilised Russia sanctions critics. Fewer than 15 percent of th ruling Socialist party’s MPs were present compared to 22.9 percent of right-leaning MPs.

The resolution was passed on the basis of LR votes, as well as positive votes by three centrists, the two far-right MPs, one MP for the Left Front and two dissenting Socialists.

The EU sanctions imposed on Russia in 2014 over its involvement in the war in eastern Ukraine are "totally ineffective to reach peace and are dangerous for our economy," Mariania said during the debate.

He said the EU sanctions had been “strongly encouraged by the US” but were “contrary to Franco-Russian interests” and had harmed the “economic relations that bind Europe, France and Russia".

He also said EU-mediated peace talks were “at a dead-end" and that the Ukrainian government was incapable of reforms.

Russia’s counter-sanctions, which centre on a ban on EU food exports, were "seriously penalising" French farmers, LR, which is close to farmers' lobbies, said.

"Did you know that a camembert cheese is more dangerous that a helicopter?," Mariani joked, referring to the fact that a US company produces helicopters in Russia despite America’s tough talk on Russia.

'Not an end in itself'

Mariani’s resolution also said that the fight against terrorism was another reason to suspend sanctions on Russia.

"We cannot ask Russia to be a partner in the fight against Daesh [the Islamic State organisation] and at the same time ask for sanctions," the introduction to the resolution says.

But during the debate, Europe minister Harlem Desir i said that the EU sanctions were "not an end in itself" but a way to keep Russia at the negotiation table.

Russia has to "ensure the respect of the cease-fire, put the necessary pressure on separatists to stop their military activities on the ground and take part in the political discussions", Desir said.

Ukraine, for its part, must implement a constitutional reform to decentralise powers to regions.

"We hope that sanctions will be lifted, in relation with a settlement of the crisis in the Donbass [east Ukraine]. If the Minsk agreement is respected, sanctions will be lifted," Desir said, adding that this was the EU's "unanimous position".

"This resolution must be the opportunity for the government to change the direction of its policy towards Russia," the LR group leader Christian Jacob i said in a statement after the vote.

Some in the party, whose leader is the former French president Nicolas Sarkozy i, have in the past shown understanding for Russia's policies in Ukraine and Crimea and sympathy for Russian president Vladimir Poutin.

Friend of Russia

Mariani, who is co-president of an association called Dialogue Franco-Russe, goes regularly to Moscow and has close relations with Russian officials, including people under personal EU and US sanctions.

He is regularly interviewed by Russian media, especially Sputnik and RT in their French versions, and is presented as an MP who is representative of French politicians.

Mariani also went several times to Damas where he met Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad. The last time was in March, with other politicians including a Front National officials who posted on Twitter a selfie with Assad.

Thursday's vote "is a good reflection of a state of mind that is a majority in the right," a LR official told Le Monde newspaper.

But the official, who is said to be close to Alain Juppe i, Sarkozy's main competitor to be the party's candidate at next year's presidential election, added that the issue "has never been discussed in the party" and that the demand to lift EU sanctions "is not the official line of the party".