The Interview

The Mediterranean migrants crisis was one of the main topics discussed by Tunisa's foreign minister Nabil Ammar and his French counterpart Catherine Colonna during their first meeting in Paris. In an interview with FRANCE 24, Nabil Ammar said that the two nations "share lots of views". He told Marc Perelman that stopping the migrants from crossing "cannot be the middle-term or long-term solution at all". "It is rather about fixing the people in their countries, creating wealth", he said.

Pakistan's former prime minister and PTI party leader Imran Khan was released on bail on May 12 after being arrested on graft charges. Since then, he says he has been "isolated" at his home, cut off from the senior leadership of his party, while thousands of his supporters have been arrested. "Anyone who supports PTI is either arrested or has gone underground," he told FRANCE 24 from his home in Lahore.

Dozens of Khan's supporters who are suspected of attacking army installations during protests that followed his arrest have been handed over to the Pakistani military for trials. This "new tactic (...) of military courts basically means the end of our democracy," Khan said. 

He denounced an "unprecedented crackdown" by a government "desperate to dismantle" his party, comparing it to Adolf Hitler using the 1933 fire of the Reichstag in Berlin to go after his enemies.

Khan said he had offered to form a committee to dialogue with the authorities and that he was ready to step aside if this could help. But he offered little hope that this would succeed. After demanding early elections for months, he indicated that he was now willing to accept that federal elections be held as scheduled in October. However, he added that he doubted the ruling majority would hold them, out of concern that his party would triumph.  

Khan said he still fears for his life after two assassination attempts. "I am not at all safe," he told FRANCE 24.

>> Read more: Pakistan's top court declares arrest of ex-PM Imran Khan 'invalid'

FRANCE 24 spoke to exiled Russian opposition figure Ilya Ponomarev, the political representative of the Freedom of Russia Legion. This Ukraine-based paramilitary group of Russian volunteers has been involved in cross-border incursions into Russia's Belgorod region in the past last few days. Ponomarev claimed the pro-Ukrainian, anti-Putin group "didn't lose a single soldier" and is successfully making progress inside Russia. Ultimately, "our guys will be in Moscow and Putin will not be in the Kremlin," he predicted. 

Speaking to FRANCE 24 from Kyiv where he lives in exile, Ponomarev claimed the Freedom of Russia Legion "didn't lose a single soldier" while launching this week's cross-border raids from Ukraine into Russian territory. 

He denied claims by Russian authorities that they have crushed the paramilitary forces, killing 70 fighters.

Along with the far-right Russian Volunteer Corps (RVC), the Freedom of Russia Legion has taken control of a 40-kilometre strip along the Russian-Ukrainian border and is advancing inside Russia, he added. 

>> Read more: Ukraine denies Russian accusations of attacking border region of Belgorod

Ponomarev acknowledged that his paramilitary group, whose ultimate objective is to overthrow the Russian regime, received a "green light" from the Ukrainians before launching the raids, as his troops "are part of the Ukrainian military".

Nevertheless, the former Russian lawmaker insisted that "not a single Ukrainian soldier has entered Russian soil", calling the raids "a totally autonomous operation by Russians inside Russia".

FRANCE 24 spoke to Evgenia Kara-Murza, the wife of Vladimir Kara-Murza, a Russian opposition activist who was recently sentenced to 25 years in jail by a Moscow court for "high treason" because of his outspoken criticism of the war in Ukraine. Kara-Murza sent a message to her jailed husband: she will "never stop fighting" for him. She also discussed the current situation in Russia and said she felt unable to return there as she feared the authorities would arrest her to "put pressure" on her husband. 

Speaking to FRANCE 24 from Washington, Evgenia Kara-Murza said her "only contact" with her jailed husband "since his arrest in April of last year has been through his lawyers".

Although "his spirit is and has always been very strong", "his health, unfortunately, is not that good," she said of her husband. She explained that Kara-Murza has a nerve condition called polyneuropathy – a consequence of two severe poisonings in Russia in 2015 and 2017 – and that "his symptoms seem to be getting worse" in jail.

Asked why activists like her husband and jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny return to Russia despite the risks, she said: "People who protest in Russia nowadays face the entire arsenal of Soviet-style repressive techniques that include punitive psychiatry, torture, physical violence, sexual violence and prison terms going up to 15 years for just saying no to the war (...) So Vladimir that believed that it was his duty to stand with these people fighting the regime in Russia."

>> Read more: Last remaining voices of the Russian opposition are being silenced amid war in Ukraine

Asked if she would consider returning to Russia, she replied: "If I go to Russia, I will be imprisoned – not because I'm someone important, not because the authorities are afraid of me as they are afraid of Vladimir – but because they would want to hold me hostage to put pressure on Vladimir. I cannot allow for this to happen. I cannot put my husband in this situation."

Kara-Murza called on Western governments to "adopt sanctions against those people who have been proven to have been implicated in gross human rights violations". 

Asked about her husband's belief that "the day will come when the darkness over our country will dissipate", she said: "Every dictator believes himself to be invincible until he falls. So it will happen with [Russian President] Vladimir Putin as well. But it's not going happen if we don't do anything to bring this day closer."

Kara-Murza said the downfall of the Putin regime would depend on a number of factors. She went on to cite "Ukraine's victory in this war on Ukraine's terms"; "economic sanctions that would weaken the regime" plus "targeted sanctions" against top Russian individuals; as well as "support and solidarity with that part of Russian civil society that continues protesting both inside and outside of the country."

"Everything should be done to make this regime collapse so that people can get a chance at building a democracy in our country," she added.

She concluded with a message for her husband: "I love him, I want him back and I will never stop fighting for him."

Evgenia Kara-Murza is scheduled to speak at the Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy on May 17.

In an interview with FRANCE 24, a top adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky slammed Russian President Vladimir Putin's Victory Day speech in Moscow on Tuesday, saying Putin celebrated the 1945 victory against the Nazis even while "attacking Kyiv", referring to a barrage of cruise missiles lobbed at the Ukrainian capital overnight. Mykhailo Podolyak went on to say that any Ukrainian counter-offensive would include attempts to retake Crimea and the occupied territories of the Donbas region.

In an interview with FRANCE 24, Angola's President Joao Lourenco said he did not think an all-out war between Rwanda and DR Congo was on the horizon. He said he was hopeful that his mediation efforts to restore peace in DR Congo's east would bear fruit. Lourenco explained that the M23 rebel group was upholding a ceasefire reached a few weeks ago and that the next step was for the group to be contained and disarmed.

FRANCE 24 spoke to Natalia Gavrilita, who was prime minister of Moldova from August 2021 until February 2023. She reacted to the recent protests calling for the resignation of President Maia Sandu, saying that a US State Department document "clearly indicates evidence of Russian meddling in Moldova's democratic process". She also stressed that Moldova is "not looking to join the EU for the name only", but rather that "we are ready to do the hard work [and] transform the country, because this is actually better for the Moldovan people".

In a interview with FRANCE 24, Moldova's minister of internal affairs said that Moscow was attempting to "reinstall a pro-Russian government" in Moldova, and that "Russian interest groups" and "fugitive oligarchs" were behind recent protests calling for the resignation of the pro-Western President Maia Sandu. "There is clear evidence that these so-called protests were financed, that the transportation of people to Chisinau [was] being truly organised, very well targeted, in clear places and clear timing with clear instructions. And [in] the media space, there is clearly pro-Russian propaganda, there is [a] clear pro-Russian narrative. If you look into the investigations about the cyber attacks, many of the IP addresses were coming from Russia," Ana Revenco said.

In an interview with FRANCE 24 in New York, former US counterterrorism czar Richard Alan Clarke described the main threats facing the United States' cyberspace and warned that Russia's cyber weapons could potentially "do a lot of damage" in the US. To explain why this hasn't happened so far, he cited an "unwritten rule" he believes the US and Russia are both following: "[if] you don't attack me, I won't attack you".

FRANCE 24 spoke to Artur Smolyaninov, a well-known Russian actor. Once acclaimed by Russian President Vladimir Putin, he has now been designated a foreign agent by Russia and forced to flee his country. Our guest explains why he has publicly opposed the war in Ukraine and even vowed to fight on Ukraine's side: Ukrainians "are fighting for their freedom".