Contents tagged with France

  • Russian Foreign Ministry publishes confidential correspondence with Germany and France

    The Foreign Russian Ministry has published diplomatic correspondence of Russian Foreign  Minister Sergey Lavrov with the foreign ministers of France and Germany Jean-Yves Le Drian and Heiko Maas.

    The letters of Lavrov and the German and French ministers are posted openly on the website of the Russian Foreign Ministry.

    The Russian Foreign Ministry explained such a step by the fact that the position of the Russian side and its approach to  the Normandy format meetings is allegedly regularly …

  • France and Germany warn Russia against new aggression against Ukraine

    Foreign Ministers of France and Germany Jean-Yves Le Drian and Heiko Maas signed a joint statement following the meeting with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba. In the document, the Foreign Ministers said Russia would face "serious consequences" if it continues attempts to undermine territorial integrity of Ukraine.

    In the joint statement, Germany and France "reaffirmed their firm support for the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine."

    Both ministers called on …

  • France urges EU countries not to recognize Russian COVID vaccine

    Paris believes that the European Union countries should not recognize COVID-19 vaccines created in China and Russia, said the Secretary of State for European affairs in the French government, Clément Beaune, speaking on the air of the TV channel France 2.

    He pointed out that the list of vaccines, which will allow travelers to enter France, should be limited to those vaccines, in the effectiveness of which the French authorities are confident. So far, only four vaccines have been recognized in …

  • France hopes Russia won't interfere in forthcoming presidential elections

    The French leadership hopes that Russia will not interfere in the presidential elections in 2022 but Paris is under no illusions about the practices of hacking and information attacks that Russia uses against other countries, said in an interview with LB.ua Pierre Person, a member of the French National Assembly and one of the closest associates of President Emmanuel Macron.

    "In 2017 and 2018, during a meeting with the Russian leadership, President Macron made it clear that such interference …

  • UK, France and Ukraine suspend all flights to and from Belarus

    The national airline of Belarus, Belavia, announced that flights to London and Paris were discontinued from 25 May to 30 October 2021. According to Belavia’s press service, this is due to "the decision of the Governments of Great Britain and France to ban Belavia flights to and from the UK and France".

    "We are saddened by the current situation, which cannot be changed. We apologise to passengers," Belavia’s statement reads. Those who bought tickets for flights in these directions will be given …

  • Russian consulate in Strasbourg turned into illegal stolen bicycles market

    French police have issued an arrest warrant for a man accused of mass theft and subsequent resale of bicycles. The case was brought in February after an electric bicycle belonging to the member of the French ruling party "Forward, Republic!", the municipal councillor of Strasbourg Alain Fontanel, disappeared. Fontanel's bike was parked outside the French office of the Council of Europe.

    A couple of days later Fontanel found it listed for sale on a classifieds website.

    Fontanel contacted the …

  • France urges Germany to stop construction of Nord Stream 2 pipeline

    Germany should stop construction of the Nord Stream-2 gas pipeline amid violent crackdown on protesters in Russia, announced French Minister of State for European Affairs Clément Beaune on the radio station France Inter, Deutsche Welle reports.

    "We have always said that we have huge doubts about this project in this context," he said.

    When asked if this meant a call for Berlin to abandon the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, Beaune said: "This is correct, we have already talked about it."

    He also …

  • French Foreign Minister impressed by scale of protests in Russia

    France considers the "shift towards authoritarianism" in Russia,which is demonstrated by the arrest of opposition leader Alexei Navalny and mass detentions at rallies on January 23,  "very disturbing",  said the Minister of Europe and Foreign Affairs Affairs Jean-Yves Le Drian in an interview with the French radio station France Inter, which was aired on Sunday, January 24.

    "I believe that these mass arrests showed an extraordinary violation of the rule of law," Le Drian said. "I also find …

  • Russian Space Agency cut off from French technologies

    The French company, which supplied the Russian Space Agency Roscosmos with parts for satellites, unexpectedly refused to continue the supplies of the components, announced the Managing Director of Science and Technology, Chairman of the Scientific and Technical Council of Rostec State Corporation Yuri Koptev.

    "We started producing spacecraft that used the component base of our respected foreign colleagues. Just two months ago, a French firm that supplied vacuum lamps to one of the subsidiaries …

  • France and Germany prepare sanctions against Russia over Navalny’s poisoning

    The governments of France and Germany are preparing to expand sanctions against Russia due to the poisoning of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny with the military nerve agent Novichok, said French Foreign Ministry in a statement.

    This statement was preceded by the confirmation by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) of the results of tests provided by the laboratories in Germany and France, which had previously found traces of this substance in Navalny’s body. …