Jacques Serais / Photo credit: AFP 3:50 p.m., April 4, 2024

Sébastien Lecornu, French Minister of the Armed Forces, spoke by telephone with his Russian counterpart Sergei Choïgu for the first time since October 2022, in a context of terrorist threat after the Moscow attack. But the reports, delivered by Paris and Moscow, of this discussion, differ radically

It had been over a year and a half since they last spoke by phone. This Wednesday, the Minister of the Armed Forces, Sébastien Lecornu, spoke by telephone with his Russian counterpart Sergei Choïgu. A phone call at the end of which Paris and Moscow, however, delivered radically different reports. 

On the one hand, Sébastien Lecornu explained that he had recalled France's availability for increased exchanges with Russia in the fight against terrorism, while unreservedly condemning "the war of aggression that Russia has launched against Ukraine "

and insisting on the fact that France had no information enabling a link to be established between the attack near Moscow and Ukraine. 

“We hope that the French secret services are not behind this”

Except that, a few hours later, the Russian version had absolutely nothing to do with the one exposed by Paris. The Russian Ministry of Defense declared that France and Russia had expressed their willingness to dialogue regarding the conflict in Ukraine, while insinuating that kyiv would have responsibility for the Moscow attack. 

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For Sergei Shoigu, Ukraine does nothing without the approval of its Western supervisors. “We hope that the French secret services are not behind this,” Moscow even declared. Comments on which Emmanuel Macron spoke in the morning. "The comments, partly from the Russian side, were baroque and threatening. It's ridiculous, to put it another way. To say that France and Ukraine could be behind it, all of that makes no sense and does not correspond reality. This is the demonstration of what I have been telling you since the beginning of the year. It is an increase in Russia's aggressive posture," declared the head of state. 

This resumption of dialogue is therefore far from easing tensions, while Paris and Moscow are both concerned by the threat from nationals of countries of the former USSR.