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The President of France, Emmanuel Macron, in an interview with Le Parisien, provoked Vladimir Putin by saying that Russia is not "a great power".
Macron, responding to new threats from Russian leader Vladimir Putin about Russia's readiness for nuclear war, has declared that France is a "nuclear power" and it is inappropriate to make such threats when "you have nuclear weapons".
Emmanuel Macron believes that Vladimir Putin "maintains a discourse of fear" but that Europe should not allow itself to be intimidated by the Russian president.
The French head of state, accused by Moscow, has become the "black butt" of Russian propaganda since he mentioned the possible sending of Western soldiers to Ukraine in the name of "strategic ambiguity".
In this interview, the French president reaffirms that ground operations in Ukraine from the West may be necessary in the future.
"Perhaps at some point it will be necessary to have operations on the ground, whatever they are, to counter the Russian forces." said the French president.
Russia is not "a great power"
Vladimir Putin, for his part, is heading for a new coronation, assured of winning an additional six-year term during the uncontested presidential election, which runs from Friday to Sunday.
But for the French president, Russia is not "a great power".
"Russia is a middle power with nuclear weapons, but whose GDP is much lower than that of the Europeans, lower than that of Germany and France," said Macron.
The tenant of the Elysée announced his intention not to congratulate his Russian counterpart on Sunday in case of new electoral success.
"The death of Alexei Navalny and the detention of all his opponents means that we cannot congratulate anyone on elections limited by the death of those who fought for pluralism in Russia," Macron said in a stern tone.
Emmanuel Macron also returned to recent weeks of high tensions with Germany over the strategy to adopt against Moscow.
On Friday, the French president and Olaf Scholz showed their "unity" for aid to Ukraine. To explain these differences, the head of state believes that Germany has "a strategic culture of great caution, of non-intervention" and that it "keeps its distance from nuclear energy", unlike France.
But the president rules out any discord within the Franco-German couple.
"I wanted to come to Germany very quickly so as not to create a debate on the strategic differences that may exist: they do not exist.
There was never any disagreement between me and the chancellor. We have a very large commonality of views on the objectives and the situation. It is the way of translating them that is different. Germany spends more than France, has more budget space, which is fortunate. France can do things that Germany can't," Macron said.
Putin's threats
Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned the West that Russia is technically prepared for a nuclear war and that if the US sends troops to Ukraine, it will be considered a significant escalation of the war.
On March 10, the New York Times noted that the United States was preparing a "non-nuclear" response in late 2022 if Russia used nuclear weapons against Ukraine.
On March 9, CNN reported that by the end of 2022, the United States had begun "rigorously preparing" for the possibility that Russia could launch a nuclear strike against Ukraine.
On February 29, Putin addressed Russia's Federal Assembly, speaking, among other things, of the "full readiness" of nuclear forces and warning of the consequences if NATO were to deploy troops to Ukraine.
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