The vice-president of the Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament, denounced on BFMTV the economic and military war that Western countries are waging against his country.
The relationship between Russia and France is not looking good. Since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, launched almost a year ago, relations between the two countries have slowly deteriorated as Western countries have supplied arms to Ukraine. A tension at its peak with the prospect of the delivery of heavy tanks to kyiv by Paris and other capitals.
Economic and military war
Invited Monday evening on BFMTV, Piotr Tolstoy, vice-president of the Duma, lower house of the Russian parliament, confirmed this tension between Paris and Moscow.
“Of course, France for us is an enemy,” he said.
From his point of view, the justifications are multiple. “France has been waging an economic war against my country for eight years already, and France has been supplying the Ukrainians with military materials. France, like Germany and other European countries which are taking part in the war, on the Ukrainian side, in a military way,” added Pyotr Tolstoy.
“Because of European aid, the war has been going on for a year,” he said. According to him, this involvement of Western countries is the reason why it is currently impossible to have “negotiations and end the war.” “It’s your responsibility and not ours. We have time ahead of us, but for you I have doubts”.
What red line?
As for the future of this Franco-Russian relationship, the viability of which had been one of Emmanuel Macron’s major objectives from the start of his first presidential term, Piotr Tolstoy specified that “it will depend on your participation in this war.”
“You are going to give tanks, then planes, then send the foreign legion or whatever. As soon as the foreign soldiers are on Ukrainian territory, NATO soldiers, it would be, as the Americans like to say, a red line,” explained the politician.
However, he reminds us that Russia “has no interest in continuing this for two or three years.”
Felt Russian
The growing hostility of Russians towards French policy on the fringes of the Ukrainian conflict had already been mentioned on BFMTV on January 11 by the spokesperson for the Russian Embassy in France, Alexander Makogonov.
“We cannot consider France as a friendly country”, he said, before qualifying: “I cannot call enemy France, it is impossible, but our resentment is very deep, we are disappointed by the political line of the French”.
For him, the damage is particularly deep in the Russian collective imagination, while France, “which we have always considered a friendly country”, now provides “tanks and guns to kill the Russians”.
