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French ambassador summoned to Russian Foreign Ministry over incident with lawmaker's plane

A French Air Force fighter approached an airliner carrying Russia’s parliamentary delegation led by speaker of the State Duma lower house of parliament Sergey Naryshkin to Switzerland

Russian Foreign Ministry building in Moscow Natalya Garnelis/TASS

Russian Foreign Ministry building in Moscow

© Natalya Garnelis/TASS

MOSCOW, October 19. /TASS/. French Ambassador to Russia Jean-Maurice Ripert has been summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry to give explanations regarding Monday morning’s incident when a French Air Force fighter had a dangerous approach with an airliner, which carried Russia’s parliamentary delegation led by speaker of the State Duma lower house of parliament Sergey Naryshkin to Switzerland, the Russian Foreign Ministry reported.

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"On October 19, the Ambassador of the French Republic in Moscow, Jean-Maurice Ripert, was summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry to Deputy Foreign Minister Alexei Meshkov to give explanations over the dangerous mid-air encounter of a French Air Force plane in the national airspace on the morning of the same day with an airliner that was carrying to Geneva (Switzerland) a Russian parliamentary delegation led by speaker of the State Duma Sergei Naryshkin to attend the 133rd assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union," the ministry said.

"The Russian side expressed its deep concern to the ambassador over the incident. It emphasised that such actions by Paris are undermining France’s credibility as the venue for multilateral meetings and negotiations," the ministry said.

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Foreign policy Russian Foreign Ministry France Sergey Naryshkin

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