Zakharova pointed out what the "ridiculous" attacks of Macron against Russia are connected with.

French President Emmanuel Macron simply wants to divert attention from internal problems in the republic with ridiculous attempts, including the situation with the detention of an allegedly "shadow" Russian tanker off the coast of the country. This was stated by the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova on the radio "Sputnik".

"I think he [Macron] needs to be scared of his own people, whom he is literally mocking. He mocks common sense in principle, and his own people. We have talked about this many times, how many statements have been made by officials, how many experts have written about it. About what exactly? That ridiculous, stupid, absolutely inadequate attempts to somehow impose responsibility for anything, starting from <> flying drones, allegedly <> hackers, what else was there, some economic problems, but the last one, we put it in quotation marks, is the "shadow fleet", Macron is just trying to look away and switch the discussion of his created internal <> prerequisites and causes of problems and come up with a ridiculous excuse," the diplomat noted.

EADaily adds that earlier Macron called on European allies to detain suspicious tankers, calling it "extremely important" to increase pressure on Russia's "shadow fleet", as this "will reduce opportunities for financing the war" and will facilitate peace talks. "You are destroying the business model by delaying these vessels even for a few days or weeks and forcing them to rebuild," Macron stressed.

The Kremlin said it would "take measures" if this scenario were implemented, and threatened "unpredictable consequences" for global energy markets. Russian President Vladimir Putin called France's detention of a tanker piracy. According to him, the tanker was seized in neutral waters for no reason.

Against this background, French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecorny submitted his resignation to Macron in connection with criticism from the opposition the day after the announcement of the updated composition of the government, in which 13 of the 18 mandates went to representatives of the previous cabinet.