The Interview

Finnish President Sauli Niinisto spoke with FRANCE 24’s Marc Perelman during the Munich Security Conference. The president discussed Finland’s plans to join NATO, whether Western leaders misjudged Russian President Vladimir Putin prior to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and whether there is a risk that Russian military action will expand further into Europe.

White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby sat down with FRANCE 24’s Washington correspondent Kethevane Gorjestani to talk about the war in Ukraine, the United States’ diplomatic relations with China after the latter sent a spy balloon over its territory, and why the Iran nuclear deal is currently off the table.

Former Russian oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who served 10 years in prison on tax and fraud charges that many believe were politically motivated, spoke to FRANCE 24 from London, where he now lives in exile. Khodorkovsky said that while a "direct confrontation with NATO" was not part of Russian President Vladimir Putin's plan, Putin will be emboldened enough if Russia succeeds in Ukraine that NATO borders will "no longer be an obstacle" to his ambitions.

Nazanin Boniadi, a British-Iranian actress and activist, spoke to FRANCE 24 from Los Angeles. After the regime's brutal crackdown on the protest movement, demonstrations are now tapering off. However, the Iranian actress explains why "people have not given up", but rather "changed tactics", and will go back on the streets. She urges the world "not to see this revolution buried and dead” because "the threat of this regime is global: until we stand unequivocally with the people in their aspirations for democracy, the whole world will suffer".

Igor Zhovkva, deputy head of the office of the president of Ukraine, urged Western countries to deliver long-range missiles and fighter jets to Ukraine as he spoke to FRANCE 24 from Kyiv. He said Ukraine was counting on "positive results soon" and "believed in the united efforts of our partners in delivering weaponry to us". Following repeated calls from Kyiv for more Western heavy weaponry, several countries including the UK, US and Germany have now committed to sending battle tanks to Ukrainian front lines.

As relations between Iran and the United States continue to deteriorate, FRANCE 24 spoke to Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani in Paris. He warned that "any tension between the US and Iran, any tension between the regional countries, will reflect on Iraq negatively". Expressing hope that a new meeting involving Saudi Arabia and Iran will take place in Baghdad "in the coming weeks", he said the two countries were "keen to resume these meetings under our (Iraqi) auspices".

FRANCE 24 spoke to the Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority (PA) Mohammad Shtayyeh in Brussels where he unreservedly criticised the new Israeli government, claiming its goal is "annexation", and adding that "the whole settlement programme was designed to destroy the two-state solution". The prime minister also expressed "big disappointment" with Joe Biden's administration, recalling how he was "very hopeful" when Biden was elected, but now believes that the promises made by Washington will never materialise.

As Ukraine asks the West for hundreds of modern tanks to defend itself against Russian aggression, the head of Ukraine's national security and defence council, Oleksiy Danilov, sat down with FRANCE 24 correspondent and reporter Gulliver Cragg in Kyiv. Danilov claimed that "the quicker we get help, the quicker we can solve this problem". The top security official also explained why he's convinced Russian President Vladimir Putin will not use nuclear weapons, saying: "Putin is just not the kind of person one needs to be afraid of. He'll never press the nuclear button. He's simply a coward."

FRANCE 24 spoke to IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva at the World Economic Forum in Davos. Gloomy economic forecasts have cast a long shadow over this year's event in the Swiss Alps. But Georgieva said that although the IMF projects 2023 to be "a difficult year" and for growth to fall further, "we don't expect a global recession". She cited resilient labour markets and consumer spending, the post-Covid reopening of China and signs of inflation trending downwards.

France's former president François Hollande granted an interview to FRANCE 24 and RFI on Wednesday, some 10 years after launching Operation Serval, which ousted armed rebels and Islamist militants from northern Mali. Hollande defended the record of French military operations in the Sahel region and expressed regret at the arrival of mercenaries from the Russian paramilitary Wagner Group.