François Hollande: “Putin Isn’t Frightened of War”

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: So you have met Putin. When you were president, you have met him, I guess, several times. Do you think — I think some leaders are still scared that he will escalate, that he will, God forbid, use a nuclear tactical weapon. Do you think Western leaders should be worried about that? Or have they seen enough?

FRANCOIS HOLLANDE, FORMER FRENCH PRESIDENT (through translator): Putin isn’t frightened of war. He has waged war. Before invading Ukraine, he waged war in Georgia, and he let war break out between Armenia and Azerbaijan. He believes that war is a good way of influencing the world and to take territorial advantage. So, Western leaders mustn’t be frightened of war themselves. That’s the major point. If you have got, on the one hand, a leader, in this case, Putin, who uses the threat of war, and, on the other hand, democratic leaders who are frightened of war, sometimes, it’s necessary to prevent another war breaking out. So there should be a good balance. So, to come back to your question, Western leaders, when they lead — when they meet to Putin, must to — make sure that force is on the table and not just fear, the strength of the force of the other side.

AMANPOUR: That’s a very important point. I was at the Normandy celebration, the 70th, in 2014 of D-Day, when you, the chancellor of Germany and Angela Merkel, Vladimir Putin, you were all there. And you started to try to bring an end to this original invasion of his with the Minsk Accords. That started there. Did you have hope then that diplomacy would work?

HOLLANDE (through translator): Yes. Diplomacy, moreover, did work, because, thanks to that Normandy (ph) format, Russia, Ukraine, Germany, and France, could actually get the Minsk agreement. But if we were able to do so, it was because Putin couldn’t go any further. His army wasn’t yet combat ready and he gave us to understand that there wasn’t any Russian army in Ukraine. It was just a question of separatists. But of course, he had sent mercenaries into Crimea. And he fears that there would be much greater sanctions