French President Emmanuel Macron accused Wednesday, from Benin, Russia of being “one of the last colonial imperial powers” after launching “a territorial war” in Ukraine. “Russia has launched an offensive against Ukraine, it’s a territorial war that we thought had disappeared from European soil, it’s a war of the beginning of the 20th century, even the 19th century, I’m talking about a continent (the Africa, editor’s note) which suffered from colonial imperialism. Russia is one of the last colonial imperial powers “by deciding” to invade a neighboring country to defend its interests there, “said the president during a conference of press with his Beninese counterpart Patrice Talon in Cotonou.
“Russia has started a new type of hybrid world war”
“Russia is one of the last colonial imperial powers” by deciding “to invade a neighboring country to defend its interests there,” he said. For the French president, on an African tour at the same time as the head of Russian diplomacy Sergei Lavrov, “Russia has started a new type of hybrid world war”. “It decided that information, energy and food were military instruments placed at the service of a continental imperialist war against Ukraine”, he thundered, affirming that he wanted to “qualify in the terms the rawer what is happening today”.
According to him, it is the Russians who create “imbalances despite all the diplomatic tours and disinformation they make around the world” and Russia is “one of the countries which, with the greatest force, uses instruments of propaganda”, in particular via the television channels Russia Today and Sputnik.
He also again denounced the “blackmail” of Moscow on food, “because they are the ones who blocked cereals in Ukraine” but also on energy with the Europeans. “I think it is wise for the Europeans not to expose themselves to these strategies, because it is one of the elements of this hybrid warfare,” he added.
Russian gas deliveries fell 20% on Wednesday
Emmanuel Macron had already strongly criticized Moscow the day before, during his visit to Cameroon, saying he wanted to “twist the neck of many untruths”. At the same time, Sergei Lavrov, for his part in Uganda, considered that Russia was not responsible for the “energy and food crises”, denouncing “a very noisy campaign around this”.
Gas deliveries to Europe via the Nord Stream gas pipeline have, as announced by the Russian energy company Gazprom, dropped on Wednesday to nearly 20% of the gas pipeline’s capacity, according to data from the German operator Gascade, reinforcing the risks of shortage this winter in several European countries.
After negotiations closely followed by the international community, Russia and Ukraine signed last Friday under the aegis of the UN and Turkey an agreement paving the way for secure maritime corridors.