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The French ambassador to Moscow was summoned following French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna’s remarks regarding an attack that targeted a Russian official in the Central African Republic last week. An attack that the leader of the Russian paramilitary group Wagner had attributed to France, and which the latter denies.
New diplomatic tensions between France and Russia. Moscow summoned the French ambassador to the Russian capital on Wednesday (December 21st) to protest once morest remarks by the head of French diplomacy concerning the attack which targeted a Russian official in the Central African Republic last week.
Russia said that one of its representatives in the Central African Republic was seriously injured on Friday in Bangui, the capital, by the explosion of a parcel bomb. An attack that the leader of the Russian paramilitary group Wagner, very present in the countryhad immediately attributed to France.
The head of French diplomacy, Catherine Colonna, then quickly denied these accusations by Wagner.
“Whimsical Imagination”
“This information is false and it is even a good example of Russian propaganda and the fanciful imagination that sometimes characterizes this propaganda,” she told AFP. “This (Wagner) militia is committing regrettable exactions on the civilian population and there would be a lot to say regarding it, but now is not the time,” she added.
In response, Russia summoned Pierre Lévy, the French ambassador to Moscow, on Wednesday. “The French ambassador has been informed of the inadmissibility of (these) new accusations once morest Russia concerning the dissemination of ‘propaganda’ and ‘violence once morest the civilian population’ of the Central African Republic by alleged private Russian military structures” , said Russian diplomacy.
“We call on the French authorities to refrain from taking a neo-colonial approach in their work in the region, telling African partners whom they should be friends and cooperating with, or creating anti-Russian hysteria,” the statement continued. source in a press release.
France regularly accuses the Wagner group of orchestrating manipulation of public opinion once morest France in several African countries, particularly in the Central African Republic, and of engaging in economic predation there under cover of government protection contracts.
With AFP
