France summoned the Russian ambassador on Friday regarding the ‘unacceptable’ cartoon tweeted by the Russian embassy.
The Russian embassy in Paris on Thursday tweeted a cartoon depicting a body lying on a floor named ‘Europe’ with other characters named European Union and the United States jabbing needles into it that angered France. “We made that clear today to the Russian Ambassador,” the 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.”
President Emmanuel Macron dismissed 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,” said Macron.
France’s European Affairs Minister Clement Beaune had criticized the cartoon calling it a ‘disgrace’. The cartoon depicted that the policies of the United States of America and the European Union are destroying Europe.
Cancellation culture
– COVID-19French President Macron came out angry, in a statement to Agence France-Presse, in which he said that publishing this cartoon is absolutely unacceptable.
A spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova,
— Engr Shahid khan Akhundzada🇨🇦🇵🇰🇹🇷🇦🇿 (@YusufzaiShahid) March 28, 2022
The cartoon has been removed from the Twitter feed of the Russian embassy. The jabs showed words such as “NATO”, “COVID-19”, “Cancel Culture” and “Sanctions”.
Read more: Kurt Westergaard, cartoonist behind outrageous Holy Prophet cartoons, dies
The cartoon from the Russian embassy came at a time when the country is attacking Ukraine with full force.
Maria Zakharova, the spokesperson of the Russian foreign ministry, retorted to the criticism by French President Macron. In her Facebook page post, she said, “We were taught by the French presidents and the French Foreign Ministry that any caricatures are normal. Even as monsters as in Charlie Ebdo. We decided to follow their advice and use satire, which they consider to be a manifestation of freedom of speech. And now they didn’t like something? No, no, no. Get it and get it done..”
She certainly referred to the inappropriate and disrespectful cartoons published by the French magazine Charlie Hebdo more than once in the name of the ‘freedom of speech’.