FRENCH PRESIDENT EMMANUEL Macron has hit back at Vladimir Putin for likening him to the emperor Napoleon Bonaparte – branding the Russian president an “imperialist” who sought to rewrite history.

The tit-for-tat exchange came as tensions spiked over Macron’s suggestion to extend France’s nuclear deterrent to other European countries – with Moscow calling it a “threat”.

In an apparent jab at the French leader, Putin said on Thursday: “There are still people who want to return to the times of Napoleon, forgetting how it ended.”

Napoleon Bonaparte invaded the Russian Empire in 1812 in a disastrous six-month military campaign that ended in Russian victory.

“Napoleon carried out conquests,” Macron told reporters after a summit in Brussels. “The only imperial power that I see today in Europe is Russia.”

“He is an imperialist who seeks to rewrite history,” Macron said.

In a televised address on Wednesday, the French president called Russia a “threat to France and Europe” and said France was “legitimately worried” about the United States shifting its position on the Ukraine conflict under US President Donald Trump.

“I want to believe that the US will stand by our side, but we have to be ready for that not to be the case,” he said. 

Macron said he would open a debate on extending France’s nuclear deterrent, following a phone conversation with Germany’s likely next chancellor Friedrich Merz.

“Of course it is a threat against Russia,” the country’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov subsequently said.

“If he sees us as a threat… and says that it is necessary to use a nuclear weapon, is preparing to use a nuclear weapon against Russia, of course it is a threat.”

Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said earlier Thursday that Macron was “detached from reality” and making “contradictory statements”.

Macron also reaffirmed that European military forces could be sent to Ukraine if a peace accord was signed to guarantee “respect” of a deal.

‘No room for compromise’

Lavrov said Russia was unwavering in its opposition to the deployment of European forces in Ukraine as peacekeepers, suggesting they would not be impartial.

“We see no room for compromise. This discussion is being held with an overtly hostile aim,” he added.

Russia would consider such troops in the same way as it would view a Nato presence in Ukraine, Lavrov said.

He compared Macron to Hitler and Napoleon, saying that unlike those leaders, Macron did not openly say he wanted to conquer Russia, but he “evidently wants the same thing”.

Macron is making “stupid accusations against Russia” that Putin has dismissed as “madness and nonsense”, he added.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called Macron’s speech “extremely confrontational”, saying Russia felt that “France wants the war to continue.”

Macron is saying that “Russia has become practically an enemy of France” but not that Nato’s military presence is encroaching on Russia’s borders, he said.

Defence Minister Andrey Belousov visited Russia’s nuclear weapons development laboratory on Thursday.

During the visit he told nuclear scientists the army was looking forward to getting its hands on “new developments” in the near future, the defence ministry said in a statement.

© AFP 2025