MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia on Sunday scolded Emmanuel Macron over remarks about wanting to see Russia defeated, saying Moscow still remembered the fate of Napoleon Bonaparte and accusing the French president of duplicitous diplomacy with the Kremlin.
Macron told paper Le Journal du Dimanche France wanted Russia to be defeated in Ukraine but had never wanted to “crush” it.
“About ‘Never’: France did not begin with Macron, and the remains of Napoleon, revered at the state level, rest in the centre of Paris. France - and Russia - should understand,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.
“In general, Macron is priceless,” she said, adding that his remarks showed the West had engaged in discussions about regime change in Russia while Macron had repeatedly sought meetings with the Russian leadership.
Macron has drawn criticism from some NATO allies for delivering mixed messages regarding his policy on the war between Ukraine and Russia, with some considering Paris a weak link in the Western alliance.
On Friday, Macron urged allies to step up military support for Ukraine, but also said he did not believe in regime change and that there would have to be negotiations at some point.
Russia’s ambassador to the United States has accused Washington of plotting to demonize Moscow and foment the crisis in Ukraine with allegations of crimes against humanity.
“We regard such insinuations as an unprecedented attempt to demonize Russia in the framework of the hybrid war unleashed against us,” Ambassador Anatoly Antonov said in a statement on the Russian Embassy’s Telegram messaging platform on Sunday.
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris speaking at the annual Munich Security Conference on Saturday accused Russia of committing crimes against humanity during its nearly year-long ‘military operation’ against Ukraine and vowed that it will be held accountable for its actions.
Antonov noted that, “There is no doubt that the purpose of such attacks by Washington is to justify its own actions to fuel the Ukrainian crisis.”
Friday marks a year since Russia launched what it calls “a special military operation” to “denazify” and “demilitarize” Ukraine.
Also at a meeting of the UN Security Council on Friday, Russian ambassador to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, accused the West of instigating “deep Russophobia”, saying that Russia had no other choice than war as the conflict is moving into its second year with no end in sight.
“We had no choice other than to defend our country — defend it from you, to defend our identity and our future,” said Nebenzia at the meeting in the council, the only international venue where Russia regularly faces Ukraine and its Western supporters.
In the meeting, U.S. deputy ambassador, Richard Mills, accused Russia of failing to implement “a single commitment it made” in the Minsk agreements while the other signatories — France, Germany, Ukraine and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe — “sought to implement them in good faith.”