France Summoned Russian Ambassador Over “Unacceptable” Caricature Tweet

France’s Foreign Ministry summoned the Russian Ambassador to Paris on March 25 over a Tweet that France deemed “unacceptable.”

Rabat – France’s Foreign Ministry summoned the Russian Ambassador to Paris on March 25 over a Tweet that France deemed “unacceptable.”

On March 24, the Russian embassy in France posted a caricature of a body lying on a surgical table called “Europe” with two characters around the body, the US and the EU, jabbing needles into it.

The needles contained words such as “NATO,” “COVID-19,” “Cancel Culture” and “Sanctions.”

“These posts are unacceptable. We made that clear today to the Russian Ambassador,” the French ministry said in a statement sent to Reuters.

“We are trying to maintain a demanding channel of dialogue with Russia and these actions are completely inappropriate,” it added.

The picture, which implied that Europe is being destroyed by policies undertaken by US and EU policies, has since been removed from the Russian embassy’s Twitter feed.

French President Emmanuel Macron described the cartoons as fake propaganda.

“It’s unacceptable. We believe in a respectful dialogue and will continue it and that means respect on all sides. It’s a mistake. It’s been corrected and I hope it won’t happen again. We demanded it,” Macron said.

In response to what Macron deemed “unacceptable,” Maria Zakharova, the spokesperson of the Russian foreign ministry took to Facebook to voice her opinion.

“We were taught by the French presidents and the French Foreign Ministry that any caricatures are normal. Even as monsters as in Charlie Ebdo,” Zakharova said.

Charlie Hebdo is a French magazine known for its satire caricatures, which also has a long tradition of disrespecting Islam and Muslims through making offensive caricatures of the Prophet Muhammed.

“We decided to follow [France] advice and use satire, which they consider to be a manifestation of freedom of speech,” the Russian official added.

The Russian embassy’s tweet comes after an unprecedented triple summit in Brussels of NATO, the G-7 and the EU to discuss how to tackle Russia’s war in Ukraine.