France has called on Vladimir Putin not to exploit Friday’s attack in Moscow after the Russian president pointed out Ukraine’s responsibility without directly accusing it.
The Minister of European Affairs, Jean-Noël Barrot, reiterated this Sunday that the French are “in solidarity with the Russian people” in the face of this attack on a shopping center on the outskirts of Moscow, which left at least 133 people dead.
“This hateful and barbaric act must be investigated, it must not be exploited”Barrot added in statements to broadcaster BFMTV in which he justified French President Emmanuel Macron’s calls to take a step forward in supporting Ukraine.
Asked if he believes Putin instrumentalized Friday’s massacre by never referring to the Islamic State’s claim The French minister suggested that the perpetrators were ready to flee Ukraine and replied that “for weeks and months we have been observing a hardening of Vladimir Putin’s position.”
This is evident, he explained, in the increasing repression within Russia and abroad, in the disinformation campaigns in Europe and in the “use of food as a weapon” by flooding the grain market.
He also insisted on this hardening of Putin’s position when asked about the Russian missile This morning it entered Polish airspaceaccording to the Warsaw authorities.
And he added that European Union leaders had agreed at their summit on Thursday and Friday in Brussels to advance “historic progress” and equip a “unified” position to counter it, in keeping with this , which Macron has been advocating for weeks to equip itself with industrial capabilities to arm itself.
In his first reaction to the attack on Friday evening, the French president condemned it “in the strongest possible terms”. the terrorist attack in Moscow claimed by the Islamic State“and had expressed “solidarity with the families of the victims, with the injured and with the Russian people.”
The Foreign Ministry, for its part, emphasized that “these hateful acts must be fully investigated.”
