During a trip to the Olympic nautical center in Saint-Denis, which will host the swimming events during the Paris 2024 Games, Emmanuel Macron described the latest comments made by Russia as “baroque and threatening”, adding that he had “no doubt” about interference “in informational terms” from the Kremlin with regard to the Olympics.
The French president's statements refer to the call between the Minister of the Armed Forces Sébastien Lecornu and his Russian counterpart Sergei Shoigu, whose versions of this exchange diverge.
Tensions with Moscow
This discussion between the two countries took place on Wednesday, in a complex security context for Russia after the Moscow attack claimed by the Islamic State group. Following this exchange, the French report indicated that Paris "did not have any information enabling a link between this attack and Ukraine to be established", and asked Moscow to "cease any exploitation" of the event. .
But, on the Russian side, possible links were mentioned between Ukraine, singled out by the Kremlin, and Western countries: “The Kiev regime does nothing without the approval of its Western supervisors. We hope that, in this case, the French secret services are not behind this.” Innuendoes which made the Head of State jump this Thursday in Saint-Denis.
Emmanuel Macron also assured that the “preferred scenario” remained an opening ceremony of the Olympic Games on the Seine despite the threat of attack, even if “fallback scenarios” are planned if “circumstances require it”. “The preferred scenario, the one that we are preparing, the one that we assume, the one that we want, is obviously the one that has been planned with all the organizers and the details of which will be revealed in due time,” he said. declared the head of state.