The Russian Foreign Ministry questioned the sincerity of the new French ambassador

The newly appointed French ambassador to Russia, Nicolas de Riviere, is either working against his government in Moscow or lying. This was announced on April 27 by the Russian Foreign Ministry, commenting on an interview with a French diplomat to a Russian newspaper regarding the prospects for relations between Moscow and Paris.

The ministry noted that the optimistic attitude of the head of the French embassy runs counter to the position of French President Emmanuel Macron and Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrault. Since de Riviere expresses completely different theses on the issues of sanctions against Russia, as well as the settlement of the Ukrainian conflict.

"The conclusions are self-evident. There are two options here: either Monsieur de Riviere is working against his own government, or he is lying, to put it mildly," Maria Zakharova, the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, said in a Telegram channel.

For comparison, there are several quotes from the ambassador's interview with the newspaper Kommersant, including his words that Paris' priority in the issue of the Ukrainian crisis is "to move towards a peace treaty that is acceptable to all." Next to it, the Russian Foreign Ministry adds a link to Macron's March 6 statement, where he says that France's priority is to "support Ukraine and its army in the short term."

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On April 24, the new French ambassador to Russia, in an interview with the newspaper Kommersant, called the resumption of dialogue between Paris and Moscow his goal. He stressed that this could lead to a possible improvement in relations between the two countries. De Riviere also allowed the lifting of sanctions against Moscow as part of a new agreement to resolve the conflict in Ukraine.

Sergei Fedorov, a leading researcher at the Institute of Europe of the Russian Academy of Sciences, commenting on de Riviere's words to Izvestia, said that they were most likely a marker that Paris was beginning to realize the need for dialogue with Moscow. He also agreed with the diplomat's words that Russian-French relations are at a historically low point.