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Envoy blasts Macron’s remark on Russia’s Orthodoxy as `inappropriate’

It is not recommended to European leaders to touch upon this delicate subject if they don’t want to look ridiculous and arrogant, Mikhail Ulyanov said

STOCKHOLM, October 25. /TASS/. Russian Permanent Representative to International Organizations in Vienna Mikhail Ulyanov criticized French President Emmanuel Macron’s remark last weekend on the Russian Orthodox Church as "very bold and inappropriate".

"The French president pronounced himself on the role of Orthodoxy in Russia. Very bold and inappropriate statement resembling the Soviet practice. It is not recommended to European leaders to touch upon this delicate subject if they don’t want to look ridiculous and arrogant," Ulyanov warned on Twitter on Tuesday.

At an international forum on Sunday, Macron said that the Russian Orthodox Church was allowing itself to be manipulated by the country's authorities to justify their military operation in Ukraine and called on it to resist the Kremlin’s pressure, Reuters reported.

Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a special military operation in Ukraine following a request for assistance from the leaders of the Donbass republics. The Russian leader stressed that Moscow had no plans of occupying Ukrainian territories, noting that the operation was aimed at the denazification and demilitarization of Ukraine. After that, the West imposed packages of sweeping sanctions against Russia. In addition, Western countries began to supply arms and military equipment to Kiev worth billions of dollars at this stage.