Valentina Matvienko said that former French President Francois Hollande and ex-Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel fooled Moscow for eight years. Matviyenko also said that Russia would face catastrophic consequences without a special military operation to protect the Donbass.
She noted that Western politicians have repeatedly deceived their Russian colleagues. In her opinion, Merkel and Hollande could have forced the Ukrainian authorities to sit down at the negotiating table with their own people, but instead used this time to saturate Kiev with weapons and prepare an armed attack.