Vlad gets French roasted
Macron rips Russia propaganda to Putin’s face
French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday called out two Kremlin media outlets for spreading “deceitful propaganda” during France’s recent election — while standing next to Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
Speaking in remarkably frank terms about Sputnik and Russia Today, Macon said the two organizations “did not behave like press outlets, but behaved like agents of influence and propaganda” that spread “serious falsehoods.”
“I will never give in to that,” Macron said during a joint news conference with Putin at the Versailles palace outside Paris.
Macron’s campaign was hit by a major computer hack two days before the May 7 election, and the info was posted online.
WikiLeaks, which posted hacked e-mails from Hillary Clinton’s campaign during last year’s US presidential race, tweeted a link to the campaign documents.
Reports blamed the French hack on the same Russian-affili- ated groups involved in the theft of the Clinton campaign e-mails.
Macron banned RT and Sputnik reporters from his campaign headquarters on May 1, claiming that they were spreading “fake news” and trying to undermine his presidential run.
Speaking after the press conference, Putin denied meddling in the French election, just as he has done regarding the US presidential race. “Maybe they were Russian hackers, maybe they were not,” he said.
Putin isn’t the first world leader Macron, 39, put the squeeze on in the past week.
Last week, at the NATO summit in Brussels, he engaged in a white-knuckle handshake with President Trump.
“My handshake with him, it’s not innocent,” Macron told a French newspaper on Sunday, saying he didn’t want to be considered a weakling.
Macron and Putin also talked about terrorism and the conflict in Syria.
The French leader said he would work with Putin on ending the civil war in Syria, and supports a “democratic transition that preserves the Syrian state.”
But he also warned that France would not tolerate another chemical-weapons attack by Syrian despot Bashar al-Assad against his own people.
“Any use of the chemical weapons will be followed by an immediate response — at least on behalf of France,” Macron said.
Whatever their differences, the French leader said he and Putin agreed that “our absolute priority” was the fight against global terrorism and the “eradication of terrorist groups and Daesh in particular,” Macron said, using an alternate name for the Islamic State, which has been linked to several deadly attacks in France.
Macron described the meeting as “direct” and useful in starting a dialog with the Kremlin.
“Big things are built over time,” he said. “It was an exchange that was extremely frank, direct, with a lot of things that were said. We have disagreements, but at least we talked about them.”