Moscow Still Waiting For Paris To Explain Macron's Claims About RT, Sputnik - Zakharova

Moscow is still waiting for Paris to clarify French President Emmanuel Macron's claims that the Sputnik news agency and RT broadcaster played a role in the yellow vest protests, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Wednesday

GENEVA (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 20th March, 2019) Moscow is still waiting for Paris to clarify French President Emmanuel Macron's claims that the Sputnik news agency and RT broadcaster played a role in the yellow vest protests, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Wednesday.

In early February, Zakharova said the Russian Foreign Ministry had sent a diplomatic note to the French Embassy over media reports in which Macron accused RT and Sputnik of meddling in the yellow vest protests in France.

"We have sent a diplomatic note only to find out whether this statement was his [Macron's] personal position or the position of the French government, and to clarify this issue. We have not received anything from the French side," Zakharova said in a speech aired by RT.

France's Le Point magazine reported in February that Macron had called one of the yellow vest protest movement's leaders, Eric Drouet, a "media product, a product of social media." According to Macron, yellow vests receive instructions from abroad, and their activities are supported by trolls and special accounts on social networks, including those allegedly bought by RT and Sputnik.

Sputnik and RT Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan has refuted Macron's claims of the outlets buying accounts. Meanwhile, Zakharova pointed out that the yellow vests' representatives appeared on RT and Sputnik more often than French officials because the latter were forbidden from talking to these media.