One of Russia’s leaders, in an interview on BFM TV, criticized France for increasing supplies of equipment to Kyiv.
Piotr Tolstoy, the Vice-President of the Lower House of the Russian Parliament (or Duma), on Monday, January 23, with our colleagues from BFM TV, insulted the French position on the war in Ukraine and Western support for Kyiv.
Relations between France and Russia are strained after French support for Ukraine as well as the supply of equipment: the last burning issue, the AMX-10 RC light tanks. Piotr Tolstoy used the interview to denounce this aid to Kyiv: “France has been waging an economic war against my country for eight years, and France is supplying the Ukrainians with military material”.
A war without Russian responsibility
The parliamentarian also acknowledged the crucial role of Western support: “The war has been going on for a year because of European aid,” aid that is preventing “negotiations and the end of the war.” An argument that allows us to reject the guilt of the West: “It’s your responsibility and not ours,” said the Vice President of Parliament.
“Of course France is an enemy for us,” says Piotr Tolstoy accordingly. The future of Paris-Moscow relations “will depend on your participation in this war,” the parliamentarian continues. “They will give tanks, then planes, then the Foreign Legion or whatever. As soon as the foreign soldiers are on Ukrainian territory, NATO soldiers, as the Americans say, it would be a red line.”