Foreigners traveling to DPR members. Who are the guests? Part 1

During the 2015 the occupied territory of Donetsk region was officially visited by several foreign delegations from Europe. In publicly the representatives of France, Czech Republic, Italy and Germany declared about their trips to ORDO («certain areas of the Donetsk region»).

For the media controlled by the «DPR» this is an excellent opportunity to state that the representatives of the EU countries came to support not just the inhabitants of ORDO, but the very «republic» and «tell the truth» about the life of this part of the Donbas. But in most cases foreign delegations come to the occupied territory illegally through crossing points at the border with Russia which has no control by the Ukrainian authorities. It is also worth noting that throughout the year international organizations such as the UN or «Doctors Without Borders» experienced serious difficulties in the occupied territory. Militants of «L-DPR» often put obstacles to their activities there, but for some reason welcome on the occupied territory the supporters of left ideology the main purpose of which is not assistance to civilians, but loud statements. 

Let us consider more in detail representatives of which political forces and opinions have visited the occupied cities of Donetsk region in recent years.
 
France

In December 2015, French representatives Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie, Laurent Briar and Estelle Mose arrived to the occupied Donetsk.

Emmanuel Le Roy was a member of the French Communist Party from 1949 to 1956 and secretary of the local branch of the United Socialist Party from 1960 to 1963. Then he moved to the United Socialist Party. Le Roy Ladurie is the author of the popular «Montaillou» and «Carnival de Romanians». He is the adviser to the leader of the French nationalist party «National Front» Marine Le Pen.

According to the French edition «Médialibre» Marine Le Pen maintained relations with the deputy of the Russian party «Edinaya Rossiya» (United Russia) Sergei Markov and supporters of Alexander Dugin who, as we know, is the ideologist of «Novorossia».

Little is known about Estella Mose; except that she is a spokesperson of the Fund «Save the children of Donbas». Laurent Briar is a French journalist and publicist. He assures that now he can not engage in professional activities in France for his active support of Russia.

A month later, in January 2016 French came back to ORDO, and again they were from the nationalists environment. At this time, the delegation consisted of the President of the association «My country is France» Jacques Klosterman and attorney Josee Jean Bousquet. Both have stated that arrived in Donetsk to capture pictures and videos that «confirm Ukrainian military crimes». They plan to transfer the data to «competent European courts». The union «My country is France» is part of a coalition of Marine Le Pen.

Italy

Representatives of the Italian political parties and public associations visited the occupied territory of Donetsk region in November 2015.
 
They were supporters of separation of the northern regions of Italy as an independent Padania: national coordinator of the «Movement of young Padanians Veneto» Vito Comencini, the councilor of the mayoralty of Verona, member of the board of «Committee of Independent Venice», member of the Italy-Russia Association (Bergamo section), a lawyer, Deputy President of the Verona Province, representative of the «League of the North» Gualtiero Mazza and a member of the Association of Lombardy-Russia Eliseo Bertolasi. The last was the most active speaker of the delegation.

Namely the words of Bertolasi on his comparison of the Ukrainian army with fascists were blown about by separatist media. However, it should be borne in mind that he was not a delegate in the proper sense of the word. He already quite a long time lives and works in the occupied territory. Bertolasi managed to give more than one interview to the separatist media as a "correspondent from Italy" who each time says that the «DPR» is fighting for a just cause.

Please follow the link to read the 2nd part of the story.

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