The leader of the French right-wing Patriots party, Florian Filippo, said that the French authorities were pushing businesses to leave Russia, but the French did not boycott the companies that remained in the Russian Federation. His words are reported by RIA Novosti.

The politician noted that the reason why French companies left Russia is purely political. According to him, Renault could and would like to stay in Russia. Filippo recalled that Russia was the second market in the world for this company.

According to the leader of the Patriots party, there was no public pressure on French business, and none of the country's citizens demanded that Renault leave the Russian market.

“We see that Auchan and Leroy Merlin remained in Russia, and in France no one stopped going to these stores, the French did not boycott them. There was no pressure from the people, the pressure was exclusively from the authorities,” the politician said.

Earlier, Florian Filippo expressed the opinion that China and the United States could take the place of the Europeans who left the Russian market. According to him, the Russian Federation can become even more self-sufficient than before.