Macron’s former adviser says Europe failed to foresee Russian threat: Report

By Ilayda Cakirtekin

ISTANBUL (AA) - Philippe Etienne, former diplomatic adviser to French President Emmanuel Macron, said Europe failed to anticipate the threat posed by Russia, in an interview published on Thursday by Lithuanian broadcaster LRT.

"Things indeed did not evolve as we would have liked, and now we see that we should probably have anticipated better the threat posed by Russia, which you here understand much better, considering your history," Etienne told LRT.

Asked to reflect back on the 90s, when many in the West believed that "there was a genuine wind of change in the Kremlin," he said that they had seen hopes for democracy in Russia, and added that the start of a democratic evolution was scaled back by "repression" around the 2010s.

Etienne said he would not characterize previous efforts to cultivate relations with Moscow as a mistake.

"We should all benefit if Russia was a democracy, if there was cooperation. ... I don't think it was a mistake. Maybe it was an illusion, maybe it was a false hope," he said.

Etienne reiterated that Europe should have better assessed the situation at the time, stressing that it must treat the experience as a lesson for the future.

"Europeans have made, I think, a good job until now, remaining very close to Ukraine politically, diplomatically, and with these new ideas which emerge, we have to stick to this method. We, Europeans, must include the Ukrainians, and Ukrainians need also Europeans politically to remain very much united, not to refuse peace, on the contrary, to say we are ready for peace," he further stated.

Etienne also noted that they should be "very consistent, and insist" on the respect of the sovereignty of Ukraine.