March 8, 2025 (EIRNS)—Along with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s remarks on March 6 that French President Emmanuel Macron was imitating Napoleon and Hitler—and that poorly—in his threats to Russia, the Russian Foreign Ministry released a statement in response to Macron’s March 5 speech, which it characterized as an “extremely aggressive anti-Russia speech.” The statement pushes back hard against Macron’s assertion that Russia is a threat to France and the rest of Europe with a reminder that “Russia has never threatened France, but, instead, helped it defend its independence and sovereignty in two world wars.”
The statement then recalls the legacy of France’s late President General Charles de Gaulle:
“The French leader evokes his country’s foreign policy traditions, but his rhetoric runs counter to them and the ideological legacy of Gaullism. He cannot be unaware of the fact that France’s high standing in the international arena has for decades relied on his predecessors’ push to play a balancing role in international affairs and to contribute to alleviating tensions between Russia and the West. Back in the day, de Gaulle put forward the concept of indivisible security from the Atlantic to the Urals which relied on building consensus and being mindful of the opinions and interests of all countries on our continent. As opposed to that, we are witnessing official Paris depart from these fundamental principles of French foreign policy.
