From Russia to Paris with Love

Below is a touching message from our friend Bernard Chalumeau, an authority on international law who has shared valuable insights with us here and here.

You may recall that the US and the EU forbade France to proceed with their bargain to provide naval ships to Russia at a mutually stipulated price. It was a done deal but the powers that be undid it, without of course, consulting with the French people, who like all Europeans have been reduced to near-serfdom by the increasingly alien EU government and their puppet governments at home.

It needs to be understood that the French, like most Europeans, understand that their government has long betrayed them, in large part by forcing them into the now-failing European Union. This is why Marine LePen’s Front National is growing in popularity in leaps and bounds. This growth can be likened to that of Nigel Farage’s UKIP in the UK and Geert Wilders’ Freedom Party in Holland. These parties all understand the Russian position and realize that while Europe has been busy banning public expression of religion, Putin has been defending traditional Christianity not only in Russia but also abroad. The European people are undergoing a low key spiritual awakening and the leaders of these alternative parties sense that, in important ways, Russia today promises freedom to their people that their own governments do not offer (as I was writing this, I received a news report that Russians may now own and use firearms for self-defense, more bad news for Russophobes hard put to show how Russia is less free than the West). Educated Westerners are aware that the persecuted churches of Syria and elsewhere in the Middle East and Serbia are sisters to the Russian Orthodox Church and that the gestures of kindness on Russia’s part toward these peoples is not purely political.

Today’s situation can be traced back to Russia’s conflict with the Ottoman Empire, where Britain, which proudly sported a long list of colonies on which the “sun did not set,” hypocritically fretted over what it called “Russian expansionism.” In Russia, the westernizers like Turgenev (an atheist and sexual libertine who lived in a permanent ménage à trois in France) insisted that the goals of this Russo-Turkish conflict should be purely political while the Slavophiles like Dostoesvsky (a Christian) unabashedly stood for protection of the Eastern Christians. Today, Putin is clearly a carrier of the Slavophile tradition who resists the notion of a unipolar world with the increasingly godless US as the enforcer of a murky “morality” that suppresses all public expressions of spirituality and traditional religion and promotes what most people in both the West and in Russia perceive as perversion.

Thus, Putin’s gift of a Russian Christmas tree to France can be seen in large part as a symbol of Christian love, the true meaning of Christmas, from the Russian people, whose spiritual fervor is white hot today after 70 years of oppression.

I have been saying for some time that we need a similar political party in the U.S. that will fight for U.S. sovereignty (not to be confused with the right to smoke the dope of one’s choice; I’m talking about a party for grownups) and that this will come about once the American people understand that they do not have a party that represents them in Washington. The non-reaction of the GOP to Obama’s unconstitutional executive order is a further step in that direction. (It is unconstitutional not because executive orders are unconstitutional but because this particular order defies Article 4, Section 4 of the Constitution enjoining the government to protect the states from invasion. So far, not all Americans grasp that illegal immigration has become an invasion, but they will eventually see the crime imported from Latin America reaching a fever pitch just like the violent crime spike in European cities thanks to the open borders policy of Brussels — known as the Schengen Agreement.)

Vladimir Putin understands a simple fact that a growing number of Europeans and Americans are beginning to understand as well, and that is this:

As far as the real people are concerned, Washington does not in any meaningful way represent the will of Americans and Brussels does not in any meaningful way represent the will of the French or any other nation in Europe.

To drive home this point, Putin’s tree is to be displayed in front of the Notre Dame Cathedral. This tree is intended for the French people, not for the tyrants in Paris, who have forbidden the public singing of Christmas carols in many public places under the rigid legal concept of laïcité (secularism). Even public display of the Christmas tree itself has been at the center of controversy.

Russia’s gesture transmits at least these three clear messages:

1. Russia is sending a reminder that France was once a Christian nation despite the rigid (some Europeans use the word ‘fascist’) legal measures taken to suppress the public expression of Christian utterances. Hence the stipulation that the tree be displayed in front of the famous religious landmark.
2. It is not important what the French government decides because it does not speak for the French. Hence, the gift is people to people, a salient feature of this gesture.
3. Putin represents hope for the French because he acts on behalf of his people first and the oligarchs second. Not only do the Russians perceive this as a rare blessing but so do the peoples of Europe, who look to Russia for hope and guidance. (Recently, Marine LePen traveled to Moscow to meet with Putin and returned with words of praise for him and his defense of ‘sovereignism,’ a concept that he applies to all nations, in the spirit of the Treaty of Westphalia).

Meanwhile, Bernard Chalumeau is urging his fellow French citizens to send a thank you note to Russia via the Russian ambassador in Paris, Alexander Orlov, who is a friend of Bernard’s.

Here is my translation of his message, which appears below:

Dear compatriots,

While our head of state despises it, bans it from the international community, blockades it, and denies it the ships it has ordered, the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, sends us a wonderful gift, a symbol of harmony and hope to all:

A Christmas tree for the square in front of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris!

What a great lesson this statesman has given us!

What a great lesson!

So why do we not respond to his fraternal gesture by sending, each and every one of us, a little thank you note via his excellency Alexander ORLOV, Ambassador of the Russian Federation in Paris – 40-50 Boulevard Lannes, 75116 Paris.

I think he will be quite moved. Moreover, does the international situation not demand that Russia and France become as close as they possibly can?

This gesture can actively contribute to this rapprochement.
Thank you in advance.

Bernard Chalumeau

EDITORS NOTE: The featured image is of the Christmas tree in front of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, which reportedly cost €80,000 to transport and install. Photograph: Jacques Brinon/AP.