MOSCOW, June 25. /TASS/. Expecting the current French ruling circles to display a level of thinking worthy of former French President Charles de Gaulle is naive, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has said.
During a briefing, Zakharova read a quote from de Gaulle: "As for our common goals, they are d·tente, harmony, security, and one day - the unification of Europe from one end to the other, balance, and peace throughout the world."
"De Gaulle's ideas, relevant in his day, are in many ways consonant with the initiatives put forward by Russian President Vladimir Putin, in the modern realities of a multipolar world and at a qualitatively new level, for forming a Greater Eurasian Partnership and creating a Eurasian security architecture. Let me remind you, both are open to the participation of all Eurasian countries and associations, including its westernmost European region. It goes without saying how far today's French diplomacy, if one can still call it that, has departed from the principles of Gaullism," she noted. "While paying lip service to the first head of the Fifth Republic, France's current ruling circles have long since discarded his political legacy. They have joined forces with those who not only refuse to hear anything about Russia's right to pursue its own security interests, but also aim to inflict what they call a strategic defeat on our country. However, it would probably be naive to expect the investment banker who currently leads the French Republic to display the same level of statesmanship as Charles de Gaulle," she emphasized.
