Paris extends its hand to Russia. French Armed Forces Minister Sebastien Lecornu held a telephone conversation with his Russian counterpart Sergei Choigu on Wednesday for the first time since October 2022, following the recent attack in Moscow claimed by the Islamic State group, the French Armed Forces Ministry said.
The minister, in particular, “reminded of France’s readiness” for an “expanded exchange” with Moscow in the fight against “terrorism,” says the press release, which emphasizes that the French minister also “unequivocally condemned the war of aggression that Russia unleashed in Ukraine “
Emmanuel Macron already on March 25 invited Russia to “expand cooperation” in the fight against terrorism after the attack that killed about 150 people in a concert hall near Moscow. Thus, the President suggested that exchanges on the topic have not completely ceased, despite tensions between the two countries. A well-informed source confirmed this to Le Parisien, but refused to say through what channels they occurred.
Warnings
After the attack, Russian intelligence agencies were noted for failing to prevent it despite US warnings. Thus, Washington warned Russian authorities of an “imminent” threat against large gatherings in the Russian capital weeks before the massacre. Reacting to this warning, Vladimir Putin condemned the “provocative statements” that amount to nothing more than “blackmail, pure and simple.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov assured a few days after the attack that Russian intelligence services were working without interruption to protect Russia. “Unfortunately, our world shows that no city, no country can be completely protected from the terrorist threat,” he added, according to Reuters.
“The fight against terrorism is a continuous process that requires large-scale international cooperation,” he also emphasized, saying that “today, in this period of intense confrontation, such cooperation is by no means fully realized.”
Source: Le Parisien
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