On Thursday night, Russian President Vladimir Putin railed against a documentary about French President Emmanuel Macron’s conversations with himself.
The nearly two-hour France 2 documentary examines the French president’s handling of the Russia-Ukraine conflict and reveals details of a confidential conversation between Macron and Putin.
The conversation took place a few days before the Russian invasion of Ukraine began on February 24 this year.
– Now I understand that the conversations with Macron have been overheard, Putin says Thursday.
According to Reuters, Putin criticizes the fact that the conversation with the French president has been made public and says he has not received any notice about it prior to publication.
Putin commented on the documentary at a conference he is attending organized by the Russian discussion forum Waldensian.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov also commented earlier on the documentary. He believes that publishing the conversation between presidents is a violation of diplomatic etiquette.
– Diplomatic etiquette does not allow unilateral leaks of such registrations, Lavrov said during a visit to Vietnam.
In Norway, the documentary is available on NRK.
Under unwritten rules for international relations, conversations between heads of state are never made public, he wrote Filter news earlier this month.
Documentary director Guy Lagache still got an exception when he was due to shoot a documentary about the French president in the spring of 2022, and the focus quickly changed with the invasion of Russia on February 24, they further write.