nAfter a telephone conversation between French Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu and his Russian counterpart, Sergei Shoigu, French President Emmanuel Macron rejected Moscow’s statements, describing them as “strange and threatening.” On Thursday, on the sidelines of the opening of a water sports center for the Olympic Games in Paris, Macron said that this led to “manipulation of information” in Russian reports.
Macron stressed that the French initiative for the phone call was intended to provide Russia with “useful information” about the background to the deadly attack on a concert hall near Moscow.
After the phone call, the Russian Ministry of Defense indicated the possible involvement of French intelligence in the attack. “The regime in Kiev does nothing without the approval of its Western supervisors. We hope that the French intelligence service is not behind this case,” the ministry said.
On March 22, masked attackers stormed the crowded Crocus City Hall in the northwestern Moscow suburb of Krasnogorsk and opened fire. At least 144 people were killed. The Islamic State jihadist organization claimed responsibility for the crime shortly after the attack. Russian President Vladimir Putin admitted that „radical Islamists” were responsible for the crime, but continued to talk about the perpetrators' ties to Ukraine.
“France did not accept or propose anything like this.”
According to information received from Paris, Defense Minister Lecornu confirmed in the phone call that France had no information about a link between the attack and Ukraine. The minister appealed to Russia to refrain from any exploitation.
According to Paris, the French Defense Minister unreservedly condemned Russia's aggressive war on Ukraine. France will support Ukraine for as long as possible and to the extent necessary in its struggle for freedom and sovereignty in order to restore peace and security on the European continent.
The Russian Defense Ministry also said that Minister Shoigu and his French counterpart “declared their readiness to enter into a dialogue regarding Ukraine.” The French Ministry of Defense denied this shortly after. The delegation accompanying Lecornu told Agence France-Presse, “France has not accepted or proposed anything of the kind.”