Russia

French Ambassador Summoned to Russian Foreign Ministry Over Colonna's Statement on CAR

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - French Ambassador to Moscow Pierre Levy was summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry on Wednesday in connection with the statements of French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna regarding the assassination attempt on the head of the Russian House in Bangui, Dmitry Sytyi, the ministry said.
Sputnik
Earlier, Colonna called a photo taken by police at the scene of an explosion in the office of the head of the Russian House in the Central African Republic, which clearly shows a note with a threat "from all the French" and a call to the Russians to get out of Africa, a "Russian propaganda."
"On Wednesday, December 21, the Ambassador of the French Republic to the Russian Federation, Pierre Levy, was summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry. He was strongly protested in connection with the statements of the Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs of the French Republic, Catherine Colonna, made regarding the assassination attempt in the CAR on December 16 on the life of the Director General of the Russian House company in Bangui, Dmitry Sytyi," the ministry said in a statement.
The attention of the French ambassador was drawn to the unacceptability of the accusations against Russia of spreading "propaganda" and "violence against the civilian population" of the CAR by some Russian private military agencies. Such comments sound out of place when a Russian citizen has suffered as a result of a criminal act and continues to be treated in a hospital.
Africa
CAR Police Considers Assassination Attempt on Head of Russian House to Be Terrorist Attack
Moscow called on the French authorities to "refrain from the neo-colonial approach" in the Central African Republic, which manifests itself in pointing out to African partners who they should be friends with and cooperate with, as well as in whipping up anti-Russian hysteria.
Sytyi was hospitalized in Bangui after an assassination attempt on Friday morning: a parcel sent to him exploded. The head of the CAR police told Sputnik that Sytyi had previously contacted the local police. Earlier, a high-ranking source in the local police told Sputnik that the Central African Republic police were investigating how DHL had delivered a package with an explosive device to Sytyi.
The day before that, the French Defense Ministry announced that the last 130 French troops, who had been in the Central African Republic as part of a logistics mission (MISLOG), had left the country, as the mission "no longer had an operational justification."
Paris in 2021 decided to suspend military cooperation with Bangui, because it considered that it was participating in an anti-French campaign allegedly carried out by Russia. The French contingent in the MISLOG-B mission was responsible for the logistics of the base in the capital Bangui, which is used by members of the EU Training Mission and the UN Multidimensional Stabilization Mission in the CAR.
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