MOSCOW: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov compared statements made by French President Emmanuel Macron to those of Adolf Hitler and Na...
MOSCOW: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov compared statements made by French President Emmanuel Macron to those of Adolf Hitler and Napoleon Bonaparte.
"Unlike his predecessors, who also sought to fight with Russia — Napoleon, Hitler — Mr. Macron does not act very diplomatically," he said at a press conference.
"Because they stated openly: 'We must conquer Russia, we must defeat Russia.' And he apparently wants the same thing, but for some reason, he says that it is necessary to fight Russia so that it does not defeat France, that Russia poses dangers to France and Europe."
Unwise accusations
"And with regard to these, frankly speaking, unreasonable accusations of Russia in preparing a war against Europe and France, [Russian President Vladimir] Putin has repeatedly called such thoughts absurd, nonsense," he said.
"It is probably perfectly clear to any rational person that Russia does not need this. Russia needs to eliminate the root causes of the situation that the West has created in Ukraine to subdue, influence, and wage war against the Russian Federation."
Lavrov explained that he primarily refers to NATO expansion
"The President [of the US Donald] Trump and his team are well aware that this was the root cause, and they are publicly discussing it. At a time when the Europeans, who for some reason decided that the United States has abandoned their interests, are downplaying the root causes, avoiding the topic of NATO, and are trying to assemble combat forces within NATO to deploy on the territory of Ukraine," he said.
He mentioned the legislative eradication of the Russian language, media, culture, and the ban on the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church as another fundamental cause of the conflict in Ukraine.
"So far, no one in the West has spoken a word about this, although human rights are supposed to be a priority in the West for any other reason," Lavrov said. "At the same time, the clerks from Zelensky's office claim that they have the most transparent democracy in the world. Europe swallows it all and remains silent."
The successor of Napoleon's cause
In his opinion, Macron's nuclear comments are a threat to Russia.
"It was very strange to me to hear that Mr. Macron, in an aggressive manner, continuing the work of Napoleon, who wanted to conquer Russia, but concealing his true misguided intentions, also began to speak out and criticize [Russian President Vladimir] Putin for constantly "deceiving", thereby entering into an absentee dialogue with President Trump," he said.
Earlier, Macron, in an address to the nation, said that he would begin discussions with allies about taking the European countries under protection of the French nuclear deterrent forces on request incoming German chancellor Friedrich Merz. He also spoke about growing threats to Europe and the republic, including allegedly from Russia.
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