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Geopolitics

In Televised Address, French President Denies Covering For Disgraced Budget Minister

LE MONDE, FRANCE 24, JEROME-CAHUZAC.COM, LIBERATION, L'HUMANITE, LA VOIX DU NORD(France)

Worldcrunch

PARIS – French President Francois Hollande appeared in a brief televised address broadcast on Wednesday, after his former Budget Minister Jerome Cahuzac admitted he was guilty of tax fraud.

In the pre-recorded broadcast, Hollande said Cahuzac had “fooled the highest authorities of the country: the president, the government, the Parliament and the French people,” reports Le Monde. “It is a shock, a serious breech of morals.”

Hollande insisted that his former Budget minister had “not received any protection other than the presumption of innocence,” adding that “The failings of one man must make us even more demanding and uncompromising when it comes to the exemplary conduct of required of elected officials.”

Hollande pledged three reforms, reports le Monde, including banning elected officials with a fraud or corruption conviction from holding public office; publishing the personal assets of all members of government and Parliament, and improving judicial independence.

On Tuesday, after four months of adamently denying wrongdoing, and facing a judicial investigation that had forced him to resign, Cahuzac finally confessed on his blog that he had hidden 600,000 euros in accounts in Switzerland and Singapore for more than two decades.

“I was caught in a spiral of lies and I did wrong,” he wrote in his blog. “I ask the president, the prime minister, my former colleagues in the government to forgive me for the damage I have caused them,” he wrote, saying he was “devastated by remorse.”

After his admission, he was charged with “laundering the proceeds of tax fraud,” reports France 24. Until he resigned two weeks ago, Cahuzac, 60, had been leading the government’s crusade against tax fraud and tax havens. If convicted, he faces five years in prison.

The scandal broke in December 2012, when French investigative website Mediapart published a report saying that Cahuzac had an undisclosed bank account at Swiss bank UBS. Cahuzac repeatedly denied the accusation, threatening legal action against Mediapart, and going on record in Parliament, to say he had never had bank accounts abroad.

After Cahuzac’s admission on Tuesday, the French media were quick to show their outrage:

Liberation’s front page reads: “Unworthy.”

In its editorial, the daily writes: “It’s more than a shame, it’s an ignominy. With his cover-ups and lies, Jerome Cahuzac did more than just tarnish his reputation. He has cast opprobrium on this actions, discredited the political discourse and raised doubts on the authority of the president."

For L’Humanité, “The political scandal is huge. The man who held France’s budget in his hands, the man who piloted the fiscal administration and led the fight against fraud was himself a cheat.”

La Voix du Nord wrote that “In the realm of big lies in front of the microphones and cameras, only Lance Armstrong comes close to Jerome Cahuzac.”

The front page of Le Monde: "The Cahuzac bomb shakes Hollande's presidency."

[rebelmouse-image 27086559 alt="""" original_size="599x870" expand=1]

A photo circulated widely on Twitter today, showing Cahuzac speaking at a podium that reads: "Fighting against tax fraud":

Cahuzac, la photo qui tue ! twitter.com/thomasherve14/…

— Thomas Hervé (@thomasherve14) April 3, 2013

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FOCUS: Russia-Ukraine War

After Belgorod: Does The Russian Opposition Have A Path To Push Out Putin?

The month of May has seen a brazen drone attack on the Kremlin and a major incursion by Russian rebels across the border war into the Russian region of Belgorod. Could this lead to Russians pushing Vladimir Putin out of power? Or all-out civil war?

After Belgorod: Does The Russian Opposition Have A Path To Push Out Putin?

Ilya Ponomarev speaking at a Moscow opposition rally in 2013.

-Analysis-

We may soon mark May 22 as the day the Ukrainian war added a Russian front to the military battle maps. Two far-right Russian units fighting on the side of Ukraine entered the Belgorod region of the Russian Federation, riding on tanks and quickly crossing the border to seize Russian military equipment and take over checkpoints.

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This was not the first raid, but it was by far the longest and most successful, before the units were eventually forced to pass back into Ukrainian territory. The Russian Defense Ministry’s delay in reacting and repelling the incursion demonstrated its inability to seal the border and protect its citizens.

The broader Russian opposition — both inside the country and in exile — are actively discussing the Belgorod events and trying to gauge how it will affect the situation in the country. Will such raids become a regular occurrence? Will they grow more ambitious, lasting longer and striking deeper inside Russian territory? Or are these the first flare-ups at the outset of a coming civil war? And, of course, what fate awaits Vladimir Putin?

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