Russia viewed comments by Emmanuel Macron about extending France’s nuclear deterrent to other European countries as a “threat”, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said

To face that threat without the United States, Macron said he had decided to open a strategic debate on expanding France's nuclear deterrent to protect the country's European allies — something incoming German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has also advocated.

Russian officials and lawmakers accused Macron of rhetoric that could push the world closer to the abyss. Russian cartoons cast him as Napoleon Bonaparte riding towards defeat in Russia in 1812