The Kremlin continues its attempt to destabilize France. This Friday, January 19, Russia summoned the French ambassador in Moscow to formally reproach him for the alleged “increasing involvement” of Paris in the conflict in Ukraine, a few days after claiming responsibility for a strike on “French mercenaries.” “French Ambassador P. Levy was summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry and was presented with evidence of Paris’ growing involvement in the conflict in Ukraine,” the ministry announced in a statement. According to Russian news agency TASSthe French diplomat was received for forty-five minutes.
This summons comes in a context of renewed diplomatic tensions between Moscow and Paris. Russia thus claimed responsibility on Wednesday for a strike carried out Tuesday evening on a building in which “French mercenaries” were deployed in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second city, where local authorities reported 17 civilians injured. “Mercenaries” deployed by France? An unfounded accusation, replies Paris. “France has no ‘mercenaries’, neither in Ukraine nor elsewhere, unlike others. This is a new crude Russian manipulation. We should not give it more importance than the previous ones and the following ones which will not fail to arrive”, replied the Quai d’Orsay on Thursday. The NGO All Eyes on Wagner, for its part, explained on the social network
The Russian “narrative”
These Russian accusations came after President Emmanuel Macron announced on Tuesday that France would deliver 40 additional long-range Scalp missiles to kyiv and sign a security agreement with Ukraine. Ukraine’s allies also launched an “artillery” coalition in Paris on Thursday to respond to kyiv’s dire weapons needs.
For a senior French officer, the tempo of the accusations responds precisely to the French announcements. “Russia uses the information field to respond to the political field,” he explains to AFP on condition of anonymity. “This is part of their narrative, structured around a NATO war against Russia and the plot against Moscow to prevent it from being a power,” he adds. According to him, the Russian accusations are primarily aimed at the Russian population, “to confirm that its leaders are fighting courageously against a bloc of countries.” They also maintain “a sort of vagueness for those who think, in Western countries, that Russia is in the right”.