Russian Propagandists Threaten Macron With 'Pre-Emptive Strike' Just As French President Says Putin Not An 'Unpleasant Man'

Russian propagandists on state-owned TV pushed for a strike on France as French President Emmanuel Macron was busy praising Vladimir Putin. 

What Happened: A video posted by Anton Gerashchenko, adviser to Ukraine’s minister of internal affairs, showed Vladimir Solovyov, a known ally of the Russian president, asking for a preemptive strike rather than a counterstrike on France due to Macron's support for Kyiv in its war with Russia.

“Macron supplies the tanks and we give them a preemptive strike against France as a party to the conflict,” Solovyov said.

In the video further, a retired army commander and current member of the Russian Duma, Andrey Gurulyov, was seen saying if France begins to “harm openly, fearing nothing,” adding that it automatically makes them a recognized party in the conflict.

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“There should be no France,” Gurulyov said, adding, “There was France and now there is no France. Would anyone be upset about that?”

Gurulyov also claimed that Moscow had enough weaponry available “to destroy France or Britain.”

This comes after Macron on Wednesday told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that his government would send light AMX-10 RC armored combat vehicles to help in the war against Russia.

Macron, in his New Year’s TV address, also vowed to Ukrainians that France will “help you to victory,” the first time he explicitly supported a battlefield victory for the war-torn nation. 

Meanwhile, Macron, during a TV program on Saturday, praised his Russian counterpart, saying Putin is not an "unpleasant man,” reported The Telegraph. 

"First of all, when you meet him, he is not unpleasant. That's the paradox, you see,” Macron said in Saturday’s episode of Les Rencontres du Papotin.

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