MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 31st October, 2018) A strong Russophobic narrative fueled by some political forces and media sometimes has an opposite effect in France, as contacts between people remain intact, Alexander Trubetskoy, the president of the Franco-Russian alliance, told Sputnik on Wednesday.
"Paradoxically, there is no deterioration [of relations] at the level of people-to-people contacts and civil society. On the contrary, everything is fine. The deterioration of course [comes] from the Russophobic press, some Russophobic political trends ... But this Russophobic pressure is so persistent, so strong that at the end of the day no one believes in it. So sometimes the result is the opposite," Trubetskoy said on the sidelines of the 6th World Congress of Compatriots Living Abroad in Moscow.
Trubetskoy noted that sometimes the Russian community is wrongly labeled as "useful idiots" or Russia's soft power allegedly used against the West, however it does not prevent the community from speaking out and promoting better ties between the two nations.
According to Trubetskoy, the Russian community organizes public meetings with the Russian ambassador in Paris, and "the French are interested in what Russia says."
Speaking of the approaching centenary of the end of World War I, he said that the new Russian culture center in Paris will screen a film dedicated to the common history of the 1914-1918 war.
"So I invite the audience of RT and Sputnik to come on November 6, the entry is free," Trubetskoy added.
He also spoke about plans to publish a book called "Understanding Russia" by Vyacheslav Nikonov, a Russian lawmaker and the dean of the Moscow State University school of Public Administration, in French in mid-November.
"In November I will publish a book by Vyacheslav Nikonov. He wrote a book in Russian, which is titled 'Understanding Russia.' I like it so much that we decided to publish it in French," he said.
Trubetskoy expressed hope that the book would be "very useful for the French," and help them "to discover a completely different concept of Russia" and the Russian world.
