Excerpts of French President Emmanuel Macron’s televised interview in which he called Russia an “adversary” were broadcast Friday at a polling station in Moscow during Russia’s presidential election, which runs until Sunday and will leave Vladimir Putin behind. in the Kremlin for another six years, BFMTV reports, News.ro reports. Macron’s image was published by Reuters.

Vladimir Putin, speech before the peoplePhoto: Oleksandr Zemlanychenko / AP / Profimedia

Emmanuel Macron called Russia an “adversary” and not an “enemy” in an interview with TF1 and France2 on Thursday evening and confirmed his support for Ukraine.

But “we are not at war with Russia,” he said.

He assessed that his Russian colleague “got caught up in a personal, repressive and authoritarian drift in his country.”

Vladimir Putin, who is running for a fifth term, said he was ready to use nuclear weapons in the event of an attack in an interview with the Russian news agency RIA Novosti and the Russian public broadcaster Rossiya 1.

Footage from the interview of the French head of state is broadcast when Russians are present at the polling station to vote.

“This is not a harmless thing at all. It’s not as if the head of the department said “let’s turn on the TV to pass the time.” No, it’s actually almost a campaign poster. You have the face of Emmanuel Macron, who is the “enemy” of Putin’s Russia,” analyzed BFMTV’s international political commentator Patrick Sous.

Macron caught the eye after his statements about NATO troops in Ukraine

French President Emmanuel Macron became the black sheep of Russian propaganda for a few days after he made statements about the possible introduction of troops from the West into Ukraine.

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who at one time declared himself a “liberal” and who became an ardent opponent of the “opposite camp” after Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, immediately attacked the French head of state.

He veiledly threatened Emmanuel Macron’s safety if he went to Kyiv.

Medvedev mocked each postponement of Macron’s visit to Ukraine, first announced in February, then in “mid-March” and then in “the next few weeks.”

“He’s a coward,” he attacked X in an extremely vulgar message.

Emmanuel Macron on Thursday night denied any connection to his security in postponing the visit.