STRASBOURG, October 1. /TASS/. French President Emmanuel Macron’s speech at a meeting of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) contained a number of old cliches about Russia, head of the Russian delegation Pyotr Tolstoy said in comments.

"Unfortunately, what he said about Russia is a repetition of old cliches in relation to our country and the situation in Ukraine," he stressed responding to a question from TASS. In Tolstoy's view, "that speech proves just one thing: Russia needs to develop its own behavior pattern rather than try to toe the line of some European notions of what is good and what is bad."

Tolstoy noted that Macron "spoke about [Oleg] Sentsov [released in the latest Russian-Ukrainian prisoner swap] and said nothing about [Kirill] Vyshinsky [Editor-in-Chief of RIA Novosti Ukraine, also released in that prisoner exchange], accused Russia of all mortal sins and did not take reality into account in any way." "He even did not mention the fact that Russia is a guarantor nation of the Minsk agreements (along with France and Germany)," he added.

In his speech at PACE, Macron, the head of state that currently presides over the Council of Europe, said that "quelling protests in Russia called into question the legitimacy of the actions that France shares and on which it had voiced its opinion." He also mentioned Russia’s "invasion" of Ukraine, adding that one of the possible consequences of such a step would be withdrawal from the Council of Europe. However, in that case, Russians would have no chance of taking their cases to the ECHR, the French president pointed out. He also noted that the most effective way of resolving the Ukrainian crisis would be to adhere to the Minsk agreements.