Published
Video length: 2 min
France/Russia: a high-voltage phone call
France/Russia: a high-voltage phone call
(France 2)
If Emmanuel Macron has not spoken to Vladimir Putin for more than a year, the Minister of the Armed Forces Sébastien Lecornu had a conversation with his Russian counterpart on Wednesday April 3. The appeal was about counter-terrorism after the Moscow attack, but the accounts given by the two countries differ.
Sébastien Lecornu, Minister of the Armed Forces, took the initiative of calling his Russian counterpart Sergei Choïgu to talk about the fight against terrorism. The phone call was in connection with the attack which took place at the Crocus center, on the outskirts of Moscow on March 22, and which left 144 dead. The telephone call was announced by France on Wednesday April 3 at 6 p.m., citing “increased exchanges with the aim of fighting as effectively as possible” against the terrorist threat.
Divergent accounts
At 9:45 p.m., in his report, the Russian minister raised a completely different subject: “A willingness to dialogue regarding Ukraine was noted.” Following this announcement, the French government denied having mentioned talks. The telephone exchange was largely linked to Russian television. The channels reported another statement from the Russian minister, where he hoped that the French security services were not behind the attack. Thursday April 4, Emmanuel Macron himself denied, mentioning “manipulation of information”.
