Breaking: Russia makes a ‘threatening call’ to the French minister.

 

Russia made a “threatening” call to France warning that it hopes French secret service officers were not engaged in last month’s terror assault in Moscow.

“The comments by the Russian side were bizarre and threatening,” Emanuel Macron, the French president, said reporters, adding that any allegations France might have been complicit in the horrific attack were “ridiculous”.

Details of the call emerged as Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, warned that ties between Russia and Nato “have now slipped to the level of direct confrontation” on the 75th anniversary of Nato.

On Wednesday, Sebastien Lecornu, the French defence minister, reached out to his Russian counterpart Sergei Shoigu, saying France was willing to boost up exchanges to confront “terrorism”, the French defence ministry stated.

The talks, the first between the two countries since 2022, were designed to convey “solidarity” following the assault, in which at least 144 people were killed at a concert venue outside Moscow, and to share intelligence on its origin, Mr Macron added.