At a public debate following the meeting of European Political Community at Copenhagen in Denmark, French President Emmanuel Macron appealed to increase the pressure on Russia’s shadow fleet to cut off its war revenues. President Macron said that the Russian shadow fleet provides between 30-40% of Russia’s war revenues and around €30 billion per year. President Macron also referred to the recent incident in which France confiscated a Russian oil tanker that was being used to lasunch drone against European countries.
On the other hand, Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk said that Russia is engaged in a war against Europe, referring to recent violations of European airspace and direct attacks with drones. He said that this is a new type of war, but it is still a war.
Both Tusk and Macron agreed that deterrence should be stepped up while President Macron said that France will down any Russian drone that enters its airspace and stated in strong terms that the integrity of French airspace will be maintained.
The speakers congratulated President Maia Sandu who won the elections in Moldova despite massive Russian interference. The Moldovan President said that Russia had mass-infiltrated Moldova’s press, however the country’s institutions worked really well and clamped down on the Russian vote-buying schemes. The Moldovan President also said that Russian is using cryptocurrency more and more for its activities and more help is needed to tackle this issue. She added that intelligence sharing was very helpful and thanked her European allies.
Newsroom
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