FILE PHOTO: Clement Beaune, France’s Secretary of State for European affairs, speaks at the European Railway Summit in Saint-Denis, near Paris, France, February 21, 2022. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier/File Photo
March 25, 2022
By John Irish
BRUSSELS (Reuters) -Russia’s ambassador to France was summoned on Friday to the French Foreign Ministry over an earlier embassy Twitter post that Paris deemed unacceptable, the foreign ministry said.
The Russian Embassy in Paris on Thursday had posted a picture depicting a body lying on a table called “Europe” with characters representing the United States and European Union jabbing needles into it.
“We made that clear today to the Russian Ambassador,” the ministry said in a statement sent to Reuters. “We are trying to maintain a demanding channel of dialogue with Russia and these actions are completely inappropriate.”
Speaking to reporters in Brussels, President Emmanuel Macron dismissed the cartoons as false propaganda.
“It’s unacceptable. We believe in a respectful dialogue and will continue it and that means respect on all sides. It’s a mistake. It’s been corrected and I hope it won’t happen again. We demanded it.”
France’s European Affairs Minister Clement Beaune had slammed the cartoon post on Thursday calling it “a disgrace” in response to the drawing which had been posted earlier in the afternoon by the Twitter account of the Russia Embassy in France (@AmbRusFrance).
The picture has since been removed from the embassy’s feed.
The drawing implied that the European continent was being destroyed by policies undertaken by the United States and the EU.
The needles, seen being jabbed into the body illustrating Europe, contained words such as “NATO”, “COVID-19”, “Cancel Culture” and “Sanctions”.
The Russian Embassy in Paris had timed its publication of the cartoon to coincide with Thursday’s unprecedented triple summit in Brussels of NATO, the G7 and the European Union to discuss how to tackle Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Western leaders met in Brussels to strengthen their forces in Eastern Europe, increase military aid to Ukraine and tighten their sanctions on Russia as Moscow’s assault on its neighbour entered its second month.
French President Emmanuel Macron has sought to keep dialogue with Russian President Vladimir Putin and continues to speak regularly with him as part of efforts to get a ceasefire and begin a credible negotiation between Kyiv and Moscow.
(Reporting by John Irish and Sudip Kar-Gupta; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
