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I saw that sticker at a crosswalk on Boulevard Saint-Germain in April 2025.
It was across the street from Café de Flore, and I was relieved to see that someone in Paris had a clear understanding of who and what Putin is.
I have been traveling to France since 1994, and French people are my first love. In a film about a Swedish, French teacher, he said: “Every Frenchmen is his own President” and I think that’s quite right.
Every day I am in Paris, I do at least one beautiful thing. It is not difficult, since the city’s canvas is always ready for its close-up.
One evening, I was out for a walk and saw this in the Tuileries Garden:
I was not in Paris this past weekend, but I am sure it would have broken my heart.
In my travels to Paris in recent months, I knew every moment in the city was a gift.
I knew that criminal leaders who cannot afford to have functional democracies with rule of law anywhere in the world would be taking direct aim at France, pouring gasoline on the fires of domestic strife, and taking direct aim at any remaining country supporting Ukraine and supporting human rights and dignity and decency. Of course, France is a target. France has nukes. France has universal healthcare. France has a brilliant Metro. France has incredible diversity. France is everything beautiful.
But on 16 September, Macron cautioned: "In recent weeks, the Russian hybrid threat against Europeans and France has intensified. The intent is to intimidate us and break our effort to support Ukraine. The result will be the exact opposite. We are not intimidated because we know that our security today and tomorrow is at stake in Ukraine."
I am in mourning, because France is in mourning.
French people love to protest, but not like this.
This is something different.
Digitally Quarantine Putin
“The West needs to digitally quarantine Putin,” wrote a Bluesky account in my response to a post where I offered a courtesy reminder that Russia accelerated the ‘yellow vest’ protests in France a decade ago to target Macron, who they are perpetually trying to bring down. I included a link to the French Institute of International Relations report on “France’s ‘yellow vests’ and the Russian trolls that encourage them.”
This morning, political philosopher Dr. Michael MacKay told me that “Russia reactivating the Gilets jaunes is the tell.”
He explained: “Fascist russia reactivated its Fifth Column in France, the ‘Yellow Jackets’, to act as agents provocateurs to the rioters attacking French civil society. Yesterday they razed the Limoges Town Hall, a priceless heritage structure. Organized, violent mobs define Chekist warfare.”
And French historian David Colon, who was Bette Dangerous’ guest last week at our book club, noted of the weekend violence that reports citing '“police and territorial intelligence sources” suggest “the mobilization of vandals was also spurred, intensified, accelerated, or instrumentalized by influencers and bloggers supported or amplified by foreign powers. Iran, Algeria, and Russia are notably cited by the press and by a former Prime Minister and an Interior Minister.”
He said he on Sunday that he observed accounts “affiliated with the Russian informational operational pattern Storm1516. Yesterday, only a few French-speaking accounts relayed and weakly amplified the chaos in the French streets. Since last night, major English-speaking influencer accounts have in turn come into play and are concentrating their attacks on the President of the Republic.”
Colon, whose new book Infodémie is available now in French, told me that we will know more about Russian activity in coming days and reminded me that the “United States is an actor in the informational threat today."
He also said: “Albania, Belgium, Italy, and France: four countries that support Ukraine and are consequently targets of the Kremlin, four countries that at the same time have varying degrees of friction with Iran.”
Vienna-based disinformation analyst Dietmar Pichler, our guest on Tuesday, told Bette Dangerous: “We need to distinguish between the political demonstrations as a whole and the violent riots. Not all protesters participated in the riots, and it can be assumed that not all rioters had political motives. This applies especially to the looters. These pictures of violent riots, looting, and attacks on shops and shop owners are helpful for far-right propaganda, especially when they show people from diverse ethnic backgrounds. The footage was amplified by Russian channels as ‘proof’ of how much Europe is in decay and how ‘safe’ Moscow is in comparison… The political narrative and the supporters of the protests are also contradictory and not without controversy. Besides demands related to education, ‘disarmament’ also plays a role. In France, arms manufacturers have also been blocked by protesters. What this means for Ukraine and the threat posed by Russia should be clear.”
He said that “extremely heterogeneous groups such as the Yellow Vests, which have emerged as supporters of the protests, also deserve scrutiny. The Yellow Vest protests, which began in France in 2018, brought together a wide range of participants, from the far left to the far right, including conspiracy theorists, Islamists, and hooligans.”
Pichler added: “Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s party, which also supports the protests, is known for its very critical views on NATO and the EU, as well as questionable positions on Russia that have been widely criticized in the past.”
And France has Russian spies. And France has pro-Russian media.
We see that in the US, those who instigated and then pardoned the violent protesters at the Capitol who tried to overthrow the government on J6 are the same feigning concern for France and spouting racist commentary.
I reached out to all my friends in Paris: they are from Japan, Laos, Vietnam, Ghana, Senegal, Algeria, Tunisia, Cork, Morocco, Madagascar, Normandy, Brittany, Bolivia, Ukraine, New York, Baltimore, Bulgaria, and London. Everyone responded that they are safe.
The violence will be used to create campaign ads to help propel pro-Russian, convicted criminal Marine Le Pen into office.
Macron is a war-time president. I wish he could remain in power until France is stabilized, until Putin and Trump are prosecuted for war crimes and crimes against humanity. The remaining free world will not be secure until both are neutralized.
In the meantime, enjoy every moment of free air in every beautiful place on earth.
I will always have Paris. I will always love France.
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Begin each day with a grateful heart.
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I have needed to admire France from afar, but my heart has the desire to experience its beauties and philosophies.