War of Words: France’s Macron Strikes Back at ‘Imperialist’ Putin

France responds to Kremlin insults, which compared President Emmanuel Macron to both Napoleon and Hitler, calling Putin in turn Hitler and an “Imperialist”.

Presidents Emmanuel Macron of France and Vladimir Putin of Russia are locked in something of a to-and-fro of exchanging insults and accusations, Macron launching his latest retort this morning. Far from Europe sizing up Russia for conquest, as alleged by the Kremlin, President Macron insisted “the only Imperial power I see” in Europe is Russia, reports Le Figaro.

Amid the attacks from Russia on Thursday had been specific claims by Kremlin figures  that Europe, and France in particular, are untrustworthy in international relations because they signed the Minsk accords in 2014 with the intent to later break them. As reported, this comes down to an interview with a former French President who tacitly implied as much, frequently cited by Russia since as a smoking gun.

Macron appeared to strongly deny these points, however. Le Figaro states it was on the Kremlin’s claims on Minsk specifically that Macron spoke when he retorted this morning that Putin is a “revisionist imperialist of history, identities, peoples”, and engages in this behaviour “because he knows that I told the truth and I know that he can betray the agreements he signs”.

In short, the two Presidents are accusing each other of the same thing, of being oath breakers, revisionists, and bad-faith actors.

The invocation of Napoleon by Putin the day before and Macron’s serve back clearly comes down by differing cultural conceptions of The Corsican Ogre, with France remembering him as a hero and the Russians as a foolhardy and defeated foe. As expressed by Macron in his attempted refutation, “He is making a historical misinterpretation, because Napoleon led conquests”.

As well as being compared to Napoleon on Thursday, Russia’s foreign minister also compared Macron to Adolf Hitler. This too was served back at Moscow on Friday morning, this time by French Prime Minister François Bayrou, who said Russia was throwing itself “on its neighbouring country to annex it, to take control of it, to chase out its leaders”, stating the country is “doing what other countries, in the late 1930s and 1940s, did to their neighbours”.

France appears to be particularly in the crosshairs of Russia at the moment because it, alongside the United Kingdom, has made itself a leader among European countries in keeping the Ukraine war going, while Washington and Moscow move towards a negotiated peace. Paris intends to build a European peace plan — possibly including European peacekeepers patrolling Ukraine post-ceasefire — and to present this to President Donald Trump for his approval or otherwise soon.