A phone call and two radically different versions of the same conversation. On Wednesday, the French Minister of the Armed Forces, Sébastien Lecornu, spoke by telephone with his Russian counterpart Sergei Shoigu. Problem: the two countries published openly divergent reports in the evening.
This exchange – the first since October 2022 – was requested by Paris and was to focus on counter-terrorism in a context marked by the attack in Moscow which, on March 22, left at least 144 dead and 360 injured. The attack was claimed by the Islamic State organization but the Kremlin continues to blame Ukraine.
The Moscow attack at the heart of the appeal…
In this exchange of approximately one hour, Sébastien Lecornu “recalled France’s availability” for “increased exchanges” with Russia in the fight against “terrorism”, according to the press release from his ministry. He also insisted on the fact that France “did not have any information allowing a link to be established between this attack and Ukraine” and asked Moscow to “stop any manipulation”. Response from Moscow: “The kyiv regime does nothing without the approval of its Western supervisors. We hope that, in this case, the French secret services are not behind this.”
… The war in Ukraine behind the scenes
The Russian Defense Ministry, Sergei Shoigu, also said that the two countries had said they were “ready to dialogue” regarding the conflict in Ukraine. Comments immediately denied by Paris. The Russian minister clearly affirmed “being ready to resume dialogue on Ukraine” but “France has neither accepted nor proposed anything” on this subject, underlined the entourage of the French minister. In his press release Sébastien Lecornu indicated that he “unreservedly condemned the war of aggression that Russia launched in Ukraine” during this call.
“Extreme manipulation”
“You have seen how Russia exploits this type of discussion and even suggests that it was France which could have supported the attacks in Moscow (…) commented former President François Hollande on France Inter. My recommendation is no contact with Russia.” “This is extreme manipulation. We are in absolute manipulation and unfortunately the instrumentalization of terrorism for propaganda purposes,” deplored, for his part, Jean-Yves Le Drian, the former Minister of Foreign Affairs and former Minister of Defense on South Radio.
Russian information attacks seem to be increasing against France while Paris recently concluded a bilateral security agreement with kyiv, with Moscow denouncing Paris’ “increasing involvement” in the conflict. We must “help, help and help Ukraine again (…) The more we help Ukraine, the greater the chance that this conflict will end,” judged François Hollande, during his speech on France Inter.