“France should not exist.” During his highly warmongering program broadcast on the public channel Rossiya-1 earlier this week, the Kremlin’s top propagandist Vladimir Soloviev proposed “preemptive strikes” against France following Paris’s decision to supply Kyiv with armor.
An assumption that found echo on the program’s plaque since Andrey Gurulyov, a former retired Russian army general now a Duma deputy, suggested a more radical response on his part. “France existed, and now it doesn’t exist anymore, would that bother anyone? If we hit France once, it will be the end of everything,” he threatened.
“Emotional” comments
A guest this Wednesday night on the BFMTV antenna, Alexander Makogonov, spokesman for the Russian embassy in France, was inevitably questioned on the subject. “Here, in front of you, on this set, I can reassure you and your viewers. Don’t be afraid,” he said.
“It’s a television program, like on French television, where experts are free to express themselves on issues that concern them, that affect them,” says the spokesman.
According to him, these comments are “emotional” and a response to “the French decision on the tanks”. and, more generally, to “the French line.” Alexandre Makogonov also recalled that on several occasions, on the sets of French television, various experts made comments that, in the same way, shocked Russia.
“I also remember the first French television antennas, at the beginning of this conflict, when on the sets, openly, in front of the public, their experts talked about the best way to assassinate Putin. Is it normal in your opinion? ”, he counterattacks.
russian grudge
More generally, Alexandre Makogonov returned to the resentment towards France that currently roils Russian society. “On ne peut pas considerer la France comme un pais ami” dit-il, ahead of nuancer: “je ne peux pas appealer la France ennemie, c’est impossible, mais notre ressentiment est très profond, nous sommes déçus par la ligne politique French.”
For him, the damage is particularly deep in the Russian collective imagination, while France, “which we have always considered a friendly country”, now provides “tanks and weapons to kill the Russians”.
Source: BFM TV
