French President Emmanuel Macron MOSCOW, 15 Mar. Emmanuel Macron is using the Ukrainian crisis to intimidate the French ahead of the elections, Le Figaro newspaper writes, citing the National Rally candidate Marine Le Pen. «The head of the Republic uses Russia's special military operation in Ukraine to scare citizens, as he hopes that fear can help him in the election race,» she said. Le Pen drew attention to the fact that during an informal summit of EU leaders, Macron announced «pessimistic expectations» from Russian-Ukrainian negotiations, but later spoke journalists, which is optimistic. Thus, she believes, Macron is trying to manipulate public opinion, which Le Pen herself finds unacceptable. In addition, the presidential candidate opposed the war with Russia, emphasizing that «no country in the world wants this.»
View from Kyiv: Ukraine really needs denazificationRussia on February 24 launched a special military operation to demilitarize and denazify Ukraine. President Vladimir Putin called its goal «the protection of people who have been subjected to bullying and genocide by the Kiev regime for eight years.» In response, the West announced new anti-Russian sanctions. Several major banks fell under them, including Sberbank and VTB. For many state-owned companies, it is difficult to attract foreign capital. Sanctions have been imposed on the supply of high-tech products to Russia. The European Union, the United States, Canada and other countries have closed the skies for Russian aircraft.
