New episode in the growing tensions between Paris and Moscow. Russia summoned the French ambassador to Moscow, Pierre Lévy, on Friday April 12, after comments by the head of French diplomacy, Stéphane Séjourné, deemed “unacceptable”.
“It is not in our interest today to discuss with Russian officials since the press releases that come out, the reports that are made, are lies,” declared the French Minister of Foreign Affairs on Monday, a few days later a telephone conversation between the Russian and French Defense Ministers, Sébastien Lecornu and Sergei Choïgu. This discussion, at the initiative of Paris, aimed to transmit “useful information” to the Russians on the attack on Crocus City Hall near Moscow in March.
In the report of this interview, Russia said it “hoped” that the French secret services were not involved in this attack which left 144 dead on March 22. Speculations denied by France, while French President Emmanuel Macron denounced “baroque and threatening comments” from the Russians.
Recurring Russian disinformation campaigns
This Friday, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs therefore summoned the French ambassador in Moscow, Pierre Lévy, in response. He “was informed of the unacceptable nature of such statements, which have nothing to do with reality”, commented Russian diplomacy in a press release. “We consider these statements by the French Minister of Foreign Affairs as a conscious and deliberate action by the French side aimed at undermining the very possibility of any dialogue between the two countries,” she continued.
Relations between Paris and Moscow have deteriorated since the start of the year, against a backdrop of conflict in Ukraine. Russia notably claimed in January to have killed 60 French “mercenaries” in Kharkiv, in the north-east of Ukraine, while France denounced “a coordinated maneuver” of disinformation emanating from the Russians. Several other “fake news” broadcast in France, concerning the possible sending of soldiers to Ukraine in particular, have also been attributed to Moscow by the French authorities.
Russian diplomacy also announced that it had summoned the Slovenian ambassador, Darja Bavdaz Kuret, on Friday to notify her of the expulsion of a Slovenian diplomat as a measure of “reciprocity” following a similar decision by Ljubljana in March at the against a Russian representative. On Thursday, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced that it had done the same with the Austrian ambassador, Werner Almhofer, after the expulsion of two Russian diplomats from Austria. Moscow said it had expelled an Austrian diplomat in response.