French Minister Sejourne Hinders Bilateral Dialogue: Russia

On Friday, the Russian Foreign Affairs Ministry summoned French Ambassador to Russia Pierre Levy to express its rejection of the statements issued by senior French officials regarding the veracity of Russian information on the terrorist attack in Moscow.

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"In connection with recent statements made by French Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne about France's lack of interest to hold talks with Russian officials since their either published or announced statements allegedly contain false information, the French ambassador was reprimanded over making such statements, as they have nothing to do with the real state of affairs," the Russian diplomacy stated.

"We consider statements made by the French foreign minister as a conscious and deliberate action by the French side to undermine any possibility to have a dialogue between the two countries," it added.

During an interview with France 24 on Monday, Sejourne said that Paris "viewed it as unadvisable to hold talks with officials from Moscow today, as Russian officials were putting out inaccurate statements."

Earlier, Macron said that Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu maintained a strange and threatening tone during a conversation with French Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu.

In this conversation, which was the first official contact between both officials after 18 months, Lecornu said that France is willing to work in the fight against international terrorism.

Nevertheless, the French defense minister denied that his country has information that would allow establishing a link between Ukraine and the Crocus City Hall attack.

"We ask Russia to stop manipulating," the French Defense Ministry said referring to the information available about this incident.