Francois Hollande recommends that the government maintain "no contact" with Russia. Former socialist president made the recommendation after Moscow's "instrumentalization" of a meeting between the French Minister of the Armed Forces and his Russian counterpart.
Sébastien Lecornu took the initiative on Wednesday for a telephone exchange with Sergei Choïgu, a first since October 2022. But the Russian Defense Ministry said after this meeting that the two countries had said they were “ready to dialogue” regarding the conflict in Ukraine, comments denied by Paris.