France accused by Russia of having violated “diplomatic ethics”

By the voice of its Minister of Foreign Affairs, Russia protests against the dissemination of a conversation between Macron and Putin.

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The reaction of Russia drives a new corner in the dialogue, disputed and dying, between Emmanuel Macron and Vladimir Putin. The head of Russian diplomacy, Sergei Lavrov, criticized, Wednesday, July 6, the broadcast of a registered conversation of the two leaders in a documentary broadcast six days earlier on France 2. “Diplomatic ethics do not foresee such a flight unilateral recordings, “castigated the minister, from Vietnam.

The documentary, entitled a President, Europe and the war, was filmed at the heart of the Elysée diplomatic cell, over the first six months of the year. Guy Lagache, its director, was authorized to record the entire conversation between the French president and Vladimir Putin, on February 20, four days before the start of the invasion of Ukraine. The film retains nine minutes, where we hear the Russian president explaining that the Ukrainian government “is not democratically elected”, but would be the fruit of a “bloodthirsty coup” during which “people were Burned alive “and of which Volodymyr Zelensky is one of the managers”.

Putin assures that he “always has a lot of fun” to speak with Emmanuel Macron, including from his gym, before playing hockey on ice that day, and finds a few promises. In order to avoid the worst, while Russian troops are massaged on the border, Emmanuel Macron seeks to convince his Russian counterpart to agree to meet the American president, Joe Biden. He believes he succeeds, but the meeting will never take place.

without concession

In recent days, the Kremlin had already made known its annoyance, initially, through a dispatch from the State Agency Ria Novosti, which pointed out at the bend of an article on a declaration of French head of state, on the sidelines of the G7 summit, that “for a long time, the French no longer respect the diplomatic rules of negotiations”, breaking the secret usually custom. The Elysée then indicated that it had warned the Kremlin not during the shooting of the film, but before its broadcast, after having viewed it twice, as agreed with the production company. No comments were made after Mr. Lavrov’s declaration.

Before her minister, Maria Zakharova, the spokesperson for the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, had expressed Sunday, on a Russian television channel, of Moscow’s discontent: “Paris signals to the whole world that he considers normal To publish the conversations between its leaders and their partners, “she accused. The Russian part defends itself to be put in difficulty by the film: “We always lead negotiations in such a way that we never have to be ashamed. We always say what we think, we are ready to answer Our words and to explain our position, “defended Mr. Lavrov. A line which allows the chief of Russian diplomacy to try to mask a contradiction by justifying the publication, in November 2021, of confidential letters with his then French and German counterparts, Jean-Yves Le Drian and Heiko Maas, practice denounced to the time by Paris.

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/Media reports.