Vladimir Putin spoke in an interview on Wednesday, March 13. He notably reacted to Emmanuel Macron's recent comments and mentioned nuclear weapons.
Emmanuel Macron will speak this Thursday on France's support for Ukraine. Even before this intervention, his Russian counterpart responded to comments previously made by the French head of state, in particular concerning the potential sending of troops to Ukrainian soil in the future. Vladimir Putin, in fact, spoke on Russian television, on Rossiya 1, this Wednesday, March 13, a few days before the Russian presidential election.
In this intervention, as revealed by LCI, he mentioned Emmanuel Macron following a question from the journalist. He is also the first head of state cited by the interviewer. "What happened to Macron? Has he gone completely crazy? He is going to send French troops to fight our army. He looks like a Gallic fighting cock, thus scaring all Europeans. But how should we react to this?" , asked the journalist.
The Russian president initially remained very vague: “If we talk about official military contingents of foreign states, I am sure that this will not change the situation on the battlefield. Just as the supply of weapons will not change Nothing". Emmanuel Macron also assured that there would be "no red line" on the delivery of arms to Ukraine. On this point, Vladimir Putin was more threatening: “For the countries which declare that they have no red lines with regard to Russia, they must understand that Russia will not have any red lines either. red lines towards these countries. Even if he does not cite Emmanuel Macron, the reference to France seems quite clear.
The journalist then sought an explanation for Emmanuel Macron's remarks: according to him, he could seek to "take revenge on Russia for the fact that we stepped on its tail in Africa". Vladimir Putin tends to agree with this analysis: “I think there is some kind of resentment. Perhaps such a strong and very emotional reaction on the part of the French president is also linked to what is happening in certain African states. Russia has, in fact, a growing influence on the continent with the presence of the Wagner paramilitary group. However, the Russian president assures that he did not seek to take France's place in Africa: "We did not impose ourselves on Africa. We did not oust France."
Furthermore, Vladimir Putin mentioned his nuclear arsenal. While fear of a global nuclear conflict still reigns, the leader simply asserted that Russia was “ready” for war from a “technical point of view” and that its nuclear weapons would be “far above others ". The president then qualified: "This does not mean that we should compete by the number of warheads or aircraft carriers but we must be aware of that. They are developing all their components and so are we. But that does not mean in my opinion that they are ready to start nuclear war tomorrow, if they want, what will we do? In any case, we are ready." If it does not target any country, the United States would be more concerned by these remarks since according to the leader, “nuclear triads, only the Americans and we really have them”. He finally, moreover, denied having considered using nuclear weapons in Ukraine.
