The ‘menacing’ call with Russia that’s turning into a diplomatic headache for France

PARIS  — France and Russia are at loggerheads over the substance of a rare high-level call between France’s Armed Forces Minister Sébastien Lecornu and Russia’s Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.

And the clashing readouts of Wednesday’s hour-long conversation are swiftly becoming a diplomatic pain in the neck for Paris.

While Paris says the call was exclusively dedicated to the shared fight against terrorism, the Kremlin claims the ministers also discussed possible talks on the war in Ukraine. Moscow also used the opportunity to make not-so-veiled threats against France.

After the call, Russia hinted at a far-fetched alleged involvement of French secret services in last month’s terror attack in Moscow, which has been claimed by the Islamic State group. Moscow is trying to pin the attack on Ukraine, with no proof.

“The Kyiv regime doesn’t do anything without a nod from its Western backers. We hope that, in this case, the French secret services aren’t behind it,” said Shoigu in a defense ministry statement on Wednesday.

On Thursday, French President Emmanuel Macron slammed what he called the “baroque and menacing comments” from the Russians. A French official contacted by POLITICO on Thursday denied the entire readout from Moscow.

An earlier statement from France’s armed forces ministry said that during the phone call Lecornu had called on Russia to end to its “manipulation” of the terror attack in Moscow, adding that “France had no information linking the attack to Ukraine.”

The ping-pong between Paris and Moscow underscores the sour relations between the two countries as Macron has shifted from hunting for a diplomatic solution to the war to calling for Ukraine’s victory over Russia and warning that Western troops could be dispatched to Ukraine.

France is also facing increased Russian disinformation attacks, hitting at Macron’s wife Brigitte Macron and accusing France and Poland of planning to dismember Ukraine.

Former French President François Hollande recommended that the French government should seek “no contact with Russia.”

“Do you see how Russia manipulates these discussions and hints that France might have supported the attacks in Moscow?” he said on France Inter radio.

Russia also claimed that Lecornu and Shoigu discussed potential talks on Ukraine, a statement that was swiftly denied by another French official.

Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu | Gavriil Grigorov/SPUTNIK/AFP via Getty Images

“The objective of the call was exclusively to discuss terrorism, and the narrative that France is open to talks on Ukraine is false,” said the official, who was granted anonymity to discuss a sensitive issue.

According to the French readout, Lecornu offered to increase exchanges between France and Russia in the fight against terrorism at a time when France faces increased terror threats ahead of the Paris Olympic Games and as Israel’s war in Gaza continues.

On Wednesday, former French defense minister and current envoy to Lebanon, Jean-Yves Le Drian, denounced what he called Russia’s “impervious and intolerable” use of the call, on Sud Radio.

“It’s extreme manipulation. We face total manipulation and sadly the instrumentalization of terrorism for propaganda purposes,” he said.

The call between the French and Russian defense ministers was the first exchange between the two men since October 2022, and was initiated by Lecornu at Macron’s request.