Farage called French President Emmanuel Macron a "globalist" who wants "many more powers to be centralized in Brussels, powers taken from the member states". Farage accused Erdoğan's Turkey of "blackmailing" the EU over the European migrant crisis and Turkey's proposed European membership. When asked in 2014 which leaders he admired, Farage said, "As an operator, but not as a human being, I would say Putin. The way he played the whole Syria thing. Brilliant. Not that I approve of him politically. How many journalists in jail now?" Farage has criticised what he sees as EU militarism agitating western Ukrainians against Russia. Later, in 2015, he said about Putin that "The European Union, and the West, view Putin as the devil. They want to view Putin as the devil. I'm not saying I want take him around for tea and meet mum on Sunday afternoon … But the point is, on this bigger overall battle ISIS in Syria we need to start recognizing we're on the same side".