De Gaulle's Pro-Kremlin Grandson Causes Unease In France

A pro-Kremlin grandson of French war hero and president Charles de Gaulle has caused unease by visiting Russia to attend official commemorations and meet the head of the foreign intelligence service

Paris, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 3rd Feb, 2023 ) :A pro-Kremlin grandson of French war hero and president Charles de Gaulle has caused unease by visiting Russia to attend official commemorations and meet the head of the foreign intelligence service.

Pierre de Gaulle, the youngest grandson of the founder of the France's modern republic, visited Moscow this week before travelling to Volgograd on Thursday for WWII commemorations attended by Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

This is not the first time the previously little-known scion of France's most famous political family has made waves.

Last month he earned a family rebuke over a high-profile interview in which he repeated Russian justifications for invading Ukraine.

On Tuesday, Russia's state television showed him taking part in a roundtable with the head of Russia's SVR foreign intelligence service, Sergei Naryshkin.

"The decision of the West to send heavy tanks to the front (in Ukraine) is very dangerous.

Western politicians do not understand that," de Gaulle says according to comments translated into Russian.

Naryshkin can be heard praising "respected Mr de Gaulle" and thanking him for his "principled and firm position, standing up for true European and human principles".

A Twitter account from the Russian foreign ministry in Rostov-on-Don published a picture of de Gaulle in Volgograd on Thursday, where he gave an interview to a local tv channel, Volgograd 24, according to images viewed by AFP.

Speaking to France's Le Parisien newspaper in January, Geneva-based de Gaulle claimed the war in Ukraine was caused by the "disastrous role of NATO", the "reckless policies" of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, as well as "neo-Nazi military groups".

"We French people are paying a high price for a war provoked by the United States to turn Europe into a vassal," said the 59-year-old business consultant, adding that Putin was a "great leader for his country".