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Elysee Palace could not leak Putin-Macron conversation tape to the media — Kremlin

The spokesman noted that the wording of the conversation provided by the French newspaper was not exact

MOSCOW, September 23. /TASS/. The Kremlin is convinced that the Elysee Palace could not have deliberately leaked the tape of a conversation between the Russian and French presidents, Vladimir Putin and Emmanuel Macron, to the media in violation of diplomatic rules.

Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, commenting on the publication by Le Monde newspaper, that "the issue of the Berlin patient was indeed discussed during the recent conversation between Putin and Macron, and the Kremlin announced this."

"However, the newspaper did not give the exact wording. And to be fair, it could hardly be exact because this would mean that our French partners had deliberately shared with the media the tape of the two presidents’ conversation, which does not conform to diplomatic practice. We are convinced that this is not so," Peskov stressed.

According to Peskov, the Kremlin does not believe that the French authorities could have leaked the leaders’ conversation details to the media. "We cannot believe that the Elysee Palace could have deliberately "leaked" to the media the tapescript of the two presidents’ conversation. This is France! France cannot do this, we don’t even want to believe this," he said.

'Novichok'

Toxic agents from the Novichok family can be synthesized in many countries and quite often it is impossible to identify their origin, the Russian presidential spokesman told the media on Wednesday.

"The most important conclusion that can be derived from what experts and specialists say is this: first, how dangerous and lethal it is; second, this substance was synthesized and can be synthesized at any moment in many countries of the world and, third, it is not always possible and is often just impossible to identify the origin of this substance, because it can be synthesized at absolutely different laboratories," Peskov said.

Asked if President Vladimir Putin was notified of this, Peskov replied: "It goes without saying."

In reply to the question of what the president and his entourage thought about Novichok, Peskov said it was totally unimportant, "because neither President Putin nor his entourage are engaged in developing chemical compounds nor are they chemists or military chemists."

"What is important, though, is that this substance has been repeatedly discussed and talked about by experts, including those who at a certain point had a bearing on the production of this compound, very dangerous for humanity," Peskov said.

The Novichok issue came into the spotlight again following the German government’s claims a substance from that family had been used to poison blogger Alexey Navalny.