“Putin is a state terrorist”, says Bernard-Henri Lévy

Back from Ukraine, Bernard-Henri Lévy reveals in Paris Match his account of the Ukrainian counter-offensive. How far will the war go? Is Vladimir Putin really weakened? Where are the paths to peace as nuclear escalation threatens? For the philosopher, guest of Big meeting Sunday, “Putin is a state terrorist […] which does not behave very differently from the Islamists of Daesh”.

“He’s a state terrorist because messing with nuclear power plants, massacring civilians, taking revenge on populations because we lost in fairness, that’s terrorism!” he continued on Europe 1.

“He hates France, he hates the West”

Faced with “the threat” represented according to Vladimir Putin by “the Nazi regime in kyiv” and “the war machine of the West”, “we will certainly use all the means at our disposal to protect Russia and our people”, has warned the Russian president on Wednesday, clearly alluding to nuclear weapons. A threat “which has lasted for 15 years”, according to the essayist who does not believe in this blackmail.

“I have long thought that Putin is a dangerous man, that he hates democracies, that he hates France, that he hates the West and that he will do everything to make this hatred go through with it. The Russian army must be stopped,” added Bernard-Henri Lévy.

But “it’s not a man with his little finger who will press the button, that’s not how it works. We are not in Doctor Strangelove”, he assured. “If this threat is to be considered, all the more reason to put this man out of harm’s way.”