Moscow identified France as “its main opponent in Europe,” French chief of staff Thierry Burkhard said on Friday, explaining it in particular by the support of Paris to Ukraine invaded by Russia.
“It was (Vladimir) Putin who said,” said General Burkhard at a rare press conference devoted to threats hovering over France. “This does not mean that he does not take care of other countries,” he added.
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France, nuclear power protected by its deterrence, is not threatened to “be attacked directly and heavily on the national territory”, but Russia has “many other options” via hybrid actions, including disinformation, cyber attacks or espionage, he argued.
“Power of nuisance”, Russia “is part of all threats”, whether the sabotages of underwater infrastructure, disinformation campaigns in France or Africa, acts of espionage, or even in space, with “Russian satellite maneuvers either to hinder our satellite trajectories, or to approach them, Spy ”.
Regarding maritime spaces, the high ranking has evoked “the Russian attack nuclear submarines which regularly enter into the North Atlantic and then sometimes descend into the Mediterranean and which obviously seek to monitor the areas which are important for us but also among the British”, another major support of Ukraine and an important target for Moscow.
“In the air, friction, interactions are frequent”, with Russian aircraft, he also underlined, in the Black Sea, “above Syria”, in the Mediterranean, “sometimes quite far in the North Atlantic”.
