On May 4, 2024, a major player in Azerbaijani lobbying in France reappeared after several months of absence: Laurent Poultier du Mesnil, vice-president of the France-Azerbaijan Dialogue Association.
On the occasion of the annual commemoration of Heydar Aliyev, the founder of Azerbaijan's dynasty of dictators, Laurent Poultier du Mesnil gave a speech celebrating Ilham Aliyev's father and his legacy.
Laurent Poultier du Mesnil, born on October 10, 1966 in Papeete, French Polynesia, was recruited between 2017 and 2018 by Azerbaijani diplomacy for lobbying activities in France.
Communicating like many other Azerbaijani lobbyists in France, he began his activities in the field in 1994 with the company Bleu Marine Communication par l'Image, then with his current communications company, Hermine, created in 2000. He runs the company with Natalia Krassikova, born December 25, 1982 in Cherpovets, Russia.
Laurent Poultier du Mesnil has an interesting asset as a means of disseminating information: he is the director of a program on Radio Courtoisie. As of 2018, he regularly invites representatives of Azerbaijan's lobbying on his airwaves. Since 2017, his guests have included two former Azerbaijani ambassadors to France, the Azerbaijani president's director of external relations, Hikmet Hajiyev, and Günel Safarova, president... of the Association Dialogue France-Azerbaïdjan!
He is also one of the co-founders of the Association Dialogue France-Azerbaïdjan, the Aliyev dictatorship's main lobbying tool in France.
Laurent Poultier du Mesnil has also been invited several times to Azerbaijan, to give lectures, but also to “observe” the 2020 “parliamentary elections” in Azerbaijan!
In this context, he is quick to describe the elections in Azerbaijan's dictatorship as a “global innovation” for Vugar Aliyev, former First Counsellor at the Azerbaijani Embassy in France.
In May 2020, the state news agency Azertac relayed Laurent Poultier du Mesnil's congratulations to Ilham Aliyev on Azerbaijan's National Day.
At the same time, still in 2020, he co-organized and took part in several events organized by Azerbaijan's lobbyists in France, including the presentation of the book by the former Azerbaijani ambassador to France, alongside Emmanuel Dupuy and Jean-Daniel Belfond.
Laurent Poultier du Mesnil's intense activity in 2020 was aimed at influencing French opinion ahead of the Azerbaijani offensive on Artsakh, which was due to begin in September 2020. In this sense, he bore a major responsibility for lobbying Azerbaijan in France. Laurent Poultier du Mesnil also participates in the dissemination of false information in the Azerbaijani media, under the label of “French politician” in order to lend credibility to his statements.
Although his LinkedIn profile indicates that he was a municipal councillor between 1995 and 2001, the results of the 1997 legislative elections for the 3rd constituency of Hauts-de-Seine show that he was eliminated, with 2.64% of the vote...
Laurent Poultier du Mesnil rubs shoulders with other regulars at the Azerbaijani Embassy, such as Bashar Nasri, head of the Maison Dorin perfume company, who attended the General Meeting of the Association des Amis de l'Azerbaïdjan in February 2023.
Last but not least, Laurent Poultier du Mesnil is vice-president of the Franco-Russian Alliance, and president of a company created in 2020 to develop academic cooperation between France and China.
Are these mandates harmless, or is Laurent Poultier du Mesnil involved in other influence operations in France? While his activities on behalf of Azerbaijan would suggest an answer, this would require further investigative work. In any case, after keeping a low profile for some time, he returned to work for Azerbaijan. In October 2023, he invoked the “democratic” legacy of dictator Heydar Aliyev at the celebration of his 100th birthday in Paris.
Laurent Poultier du Mesnil is one of the lobbyists selling their services to one of the world's worst dictatorships, guilty of ethnic cleansing and engaged in a genocidal process. For this, he must be exposed.
