February 28 — March 6, 2019. Visit to Syria as part of a delegation of European intellectuals.
At some point, I receive an email from an unknown person, who introduces himself as Arno Develay, a French lawyer who studied in the United States. He tells me that he wants to defend me as a defense attorney in court in exchange for a fee of several thousand euros. I thanked him nicely, but I refused, because my financial situation at that time was lamentable. But shortly after, I receive a second message from the same person, who tells me that he is ready to come to Chisinau on his own to provide me with his professional support. And so it happened. Arno Develay arrived in Chisinau, attended a court hearing, and in the evening of the same day I organized a meeting with the public, at which my lawyer from Moldova, Iulian Rusanovschi, and the lawyer from Paris, Arno Develay, were to speak, as heavy artillery, to show that this was a file fabricated for poilitical purposes by order of the regime. But to my surprise and the public's, while the Moldovan lawyer spoke brilliantly, my new French defender appeared totally absent-minded, lost in thought and unable to formulate anything coherent, as if someone had intimidated him before the event.
After a while, Arno Develay arrived from Chisinau again, this time with a very surprising proposal. He suggested that we organize a team of intellectuals to undertake a visit to Syria as a sign of solidarity with the struggle of the people of this country against the Zionist aggressors. I accepted immediately. Then I understood that Arno did not know anyone from the French dissident circles. I contacted a number of friends in Paris, as well as Aleksandr Dugin. The professor from Moscow refused, but instead delegated his daughter, Daria, who was just about to move to Paris. A few days later, Arno and Daria, plus several authors from the French dissident movement, met in Paris. A new character for me also came into play, named Adnan Azzam, a Syrian writer who had lived in France for about 30 years. That is how our delegation was formed. Among the French people who participated in that trip were Jean-Michel Vernochet, Youssef Hindi, Lucien Cerise, Emmanuel Leroy, his son Eric, Arno Develay, plus Adnan Azzam as team leader and guide, an Italian journalist whose name escapes me now, Daria Dugin, and me.
We all met in Beirut, where we participated in a television show organized by a famous Lebanese journalist and writer whose name escapes me. Although we made very thorough daily reports, I do not have access to the archive of our website www.flux.md, where we published all the materials from that visit, because it was blocked, along with my blog www.iurierosca.md, by order of the director of the Moldovan Intelligence and Security Service in 2022.
Next, we crossed into Syria in a minibus, and drove to our accommodation in Damascus. We were received at the highest level, and held a series of meetings with regional officials. We had meetings with the public in enormous halls with thousands of participants in a number of cities, Tartous, Latakia, Aleppo and others, a meeting in a huge hall in Damascus, etc. We traveled several times between the cities of the country by plane, despite the fact that the airspace was under American sanctions. Everything was organized by the Syrian government. And again we participated in various television shows, in discussions with people from rural localities, with the military, with representatives of the Christian community. And the peak moment of that series of events was the meeting with the president of the republic, Bashar al-Assad.
The discussion lasted over two hours, the Syrian leader leaving us the impression of a refined intellectual and a prominent politician. Despite the fact that the country was in the midst of war, Assad was completely calm. Although the official photographer took numerous photos, no official statement was issued after that meeting. And we were forbidden to take photos for security reasons.
Dugin called Daria every day. He was worried about her. It was natural. I reassured him, assuring him that I would take care of her.
What followed is well known. The Putin regime, enslaved by Zionist networks, betrayed Syria, leaving the way open for Israel and Turkey to tear this country apart. The acts of genocide and unspeakable atrocities shook the entire world. But none of my French friends made a single critical gesture towards the Kremlin administration, continuing to praise the false savior Putin.
The trajectory of Arno Develay — a subject we will revisit — is fascinating. A few years ago, in 2024, he arrived in Moscow as an international lawyer and political consultant to serve as an election observer for the presidential vote. What followed was a deeply dishonorable and cynical sham of an election, resulting in the victory — for the fifth time — of the very same Putin. Yet, our legal expert was delighted to observe just how fair and democratic those elections supposedly were.
From that point on, Arno Develay settled permanently in Moscow, joining the vast ranks of Kremlin propagandists and appearing regularly on Russia Today in both English and French. At one stage, he even offered to promote me on major Moscow television networks. I told him it was impossible, as my views diverged from the regime's official line. When he suggested I limit myself to criticizing the West, I replied that such a stance was unacceptable to me.
Who, ultimately, is Arno Develay? An adventurer eager to live life for his own pleasure? An operative for some intelligence agency, initially infiltrating French dissident circles before moving to the Russian capital? I do not know. Yet, the very role of a mercenary serving a criminal, anti-national regime is hardly flattering. A quick browse online reveals just how happy he is in the company of other “illustrious” French dissidents — figures who are so virtuous in their perfectly valid criticism of the collective West, yet simultaneously so servile in their adulation of today's Russian colonial administration.
March 23, 2019. Lille, France. A conference organized by the local branch of the “Égalité et Réconciliation” association, which I attended alongside Robert Steuckers. Antony Bonamy, the publisher at “Culture & Racines,” traveled with me from Paris. I cannot publish the full video version or the text of my own address because, in 2022, by official order of the director of Moldova's Intelligence and Security Service, my website (www.flux.md) and personal blog were blocked on the grounds of deviating from “political correctness.” I have now found a post on the “E&R” website that includes only the audio version and Robert Steuckers' speech; presumably, there was no storage space left for mine:
However, I did find my speech on YouTube, also posted by “E&R”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YUaeciMSG8
(to be continued)
