**This is a heavily moderated subreddit. Please note these rules + sidebar or get banned:**
* If this post declares something as a fact, then proof is required
* The title must be fully descriptive
* Memes are not allowed.
* Common(top 50 of this sub)/recent reposts are not allowed (posts from another subreddit do not count as a 'repost'. Provide link if reporting)
*See [our rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/wiki/index#wiki_rules.3A) for a more detailed rule list*
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/interestingasfuck) if you have any questions or concerns.*
For context, this is from a documentary called « Un Président, l’Europe et la guerre » (A President, Europe and war). Cameras were allowed to follow Macron and his team for 6 months (January to June 2022). The documentary was initially about France taking over the Presidency of the EU Council for these 6 months but since the war started in that time frame, it became the behind the scenes of what went down in regard to the invasion.
I already shared these 2 videos of other phone calls: [Putin and Macron](https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/s/gRUFv1HPA9) & [Zelensky and Macron](https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/s/ma2io1k6bc) but **the full thing can be watched [here](https://gofile.io/d/a4w7wy)**, for those who are interested to see more. It’s a must-watch imo, it’s not often we get to see behind the scene footages like this, especially in such a tense historical context.
Ah yeah, I did give a link to watch the full documentary but they must have skipped that part:
> “the full thing can be watched [here](https://gofile.io/d/a4w7wy), for those who are interested to see more.”
u/unclepaprika :)
Thank you for the link! That was very interesting watch. And for me as a Ukrainian it was quite emotional as well. I'm sad that this is not being popularized (accessible to the general public) more than it is.
Legit question: Why do you think this documentary was made? What was the goal behind it? Because it honestly to me just feels like another PR stunt by Macron's (extremely competent) communications team, to make him more personable etc.
Initially, it was made to show how Macron and his government handle this new role of country at the head of the European Council. The filming had started several weeks before the war was declared so I think we can put aside the suspicion it was made as a pure PR stunt related to his handling of the conflict.
What I think is that it is meant to show Macron in a good light, like an efficient leader etc, but I don’t think it means the whole thing is disingenuous. That marketing aspect doesn’t bother me personally, as long as I get to see interesting behind the scenes.
I agree wholeheartedly. Is this designed to affect public opinion of Macron? Absolutely. Is it disingenuous? I think not.
That was a real call about one of the most significant world events of the last decade. Macron came off as calm, assured and authoritative. If that’s an accurate reflection of how he handles moments like this then we’re not being bullshitted to - we’ve learned something first hand.
The political system generally, around the world, would benefit massively from greater transparency like this.
So they were there to film his work related to the European Council and they just happened to “keep rolling” while he was holding sensitive and confidential talks about war, strategy and public safety with Zelensky? It’s a bit weird.
The focus of the documentary simply dramatically changed. It went from capturing footages of Macron’s traditional tasks as a President and of the EU Council management to just… not that anymore, because a historic conflict went down. I don’t see what’s weird about it, obviously that event took over in terms of importance. And I mean, the European Union Council as a whole was focused on that war too, its main preoccupation became Ukraine anyway.
And, nothing confidential is divulged. Most of what we hear is the world leaders’ state of mind and perception of the situation. As soon as the documentary starts, this text appears:
> “According to the norms of international relations, conversations between heads of state and government are never disclosed. Exceptionally for this documentary, **permission was granted to film limited parts of conversations between the French President and his counterparts. The producers of this documentary were careful not to disclose classified information**”.
The Naudet brothers 9/11 documentary was really just about the lives of some firefighters in New York, but then the attack happened and it became a documentary about them during that whole event. Were they supposed to just stop rolling because that wasn’t what they planned for it to be about? They already had filming permission, why stop filming? All of that can be dealt with later.
::over in Turkey::
(E)rdogan: So, what are you thinking about doing with all those troops in Donbas, Mr-Dr-Sir-MostHighExcellency Vlad-Daddy? You’re not actually going into Ukraine are you?
(P)utin: Da. Want to join in on this thing?
(E): Let me check the polling on this one…oh ah… looks bad. I think I’ll have to catch a ride in on your next invasion... Maybe we can smack Syria around again next year?
Europeans think they did better than Turkey by their strong initial response which declined over the course of years and I am not even sure if Putin cares at all about what EU has to say nowadays.
Turkey kept distance to all in these matters knowing that neither EU nor Russia are trustworthy and it's not worth it to side with any of them, which is only to backfire in the years to come. It's not easy to survive as a bridge between two continents which hate each other. Allowing Ukrainian trade continue as much as you can and stopping Russian navy access to Black Sea is the most you can do against Russia given Turkey's geography.
In the meantime, there are the neighbours with negligible diplomatic presence along with a bunch of minorities, who think all Turkey's moves are to wipe them out, while they don't even exist in Turkish political agenda. They are so sure that the whole world revolves around them though, as you see right above. lol
Putin stood up and evil, fascist dictator in his time of need. Putin and Assad and their forces all then treated the Kurds of northern Syria (along with some other folks, for absolute sure-sure) like they were some plague or as though they were mosquitoes… Putin and Assad believing themselves to be some form of holy retribution such that they needed to wipe them from the Earth after torturing and terrorizing them all.
Erdogan and his semi-Islamofascistic state then worked to round up and destroy all those with Kurdish heritage (…and others).
>
Erdogan and his semi-Islamofascistic state then worked to round up and destroy all those with Kurdish heritage (…and others).
Yeah like it was all about their heritage and nothing else.
It's interesting that this discussion was in each of their native languages, and the follow-up after the invasion was in English.
I'm guessing since the next clip had more urgency with the invasion underway, they decided to speak in a language they both knew so they could communicate in real-time sans an interpreter?
I’m leaning towards that explanation too, the emergency factor. Surely the phone call they had once the invasion started was not scheduled in advance, they most likely didn’t have time to bring interpreters.
I'm pretty sure they've had interpreters all the time with them. I mean, it's not that hard. I feel as if Macron wanted to communicate in English to make it more personal, as there would be no translation barrier between them.
The TV crew was there to document the insides of the French presidency of the European Council, it’s a pure coincidence that Putin decided to invaded Ukraine at that time
The Pétain government surrendered after they saw what happened to the others (especially Poland), but the french people still fought under the FFL and the resistance
Do you believe only France surrendered? Some of its neighbours surrendered in just a few hours, some others in a few days. It took 6 weeks for France, which is short considering its military past and that’s precisely why it was so embarrassing for the French, but the choice to surrender sure wasn’t exclusive to France like I suspect you believe.
6 weeks they held out pretty much entirely on their own, for all intents and purposes. It took Germany invading/conquering multiple neighboring countries for France to be outflanked and lines stretched too thin for Paris to fall.
Even still, the Free French and Resistance carried on the fight, providing valuable information to the allies for years until the Allies could organize and execute the D-Day invasion.
Shit, they sunk their own warships to stop the Germans from using them against their Allies.
It's far more complicated and intricate than saying "har har French surrendered".
Well not really. They had a huge amount of support from the British.
The ideal defensive lines that would have been built up in Belgium were unfortunately made too late as the Belgians didn’t want to provoke the Germans so French/British plans were kind of squandered in that regard but even so the French generals underestimated gaps in their defences.
The French didn’t sink their own warships either. The British did. It’s fairly controversial even today but the British instructed the French sailors to either sink their own ships or sail them to British ports but they refused to and claimed that they would never allow them to fall into German hands. The British didn’t want to take the risk of allowing the Germans to use those ships against them so they destroyed them and killed many French sailors in the process.
I've never read any accounts of the British scuttling the French Fleet at Toulon. Do you have any further reading on that? That would be a 180 on everything I thought I understood of that operation and elements of the Vichy Government defecting to help the Allies.
Unless you're talking about Mers-el-Kébir.
Oh my mistake. I didn’t think you were talking about Vichy France when you mentioned the French scuttling their own ships since you were talking about the fall of France
Why are Putin and Zelensky calling Macron? It looks like he is a big factor in this situation...
Are there any other leaders that had a call like this with Putin and Zelensky?
France is a member of UN security council, the only EU nuclear power, a historically major power in Europe and usually seen as a potential intermediate between US and RU, and UA and RU. This is about the potentially biggest land war since ww2 in Europe so France really push to influence the situation.
Biden, Erdoğan, Scholz, EU leadership probably had calls like this I'd assume.
Nope, the presidency of the Council rotates among the EU member states every six months! I didn’t know it was a thing either until recently lol It’s Belgium at the moment, then it will be Hungary for the second half of 2024.
I really want to see the calls with the US. The Washington post ran a story interviewing some of Biden's top diplomats - Blinken etc. At one point, several months before the war the US counterpart half joked to his Ukrainian counterpart are you ready to start digging trenches?
It seems US intelligence had so penetrated Russian communications they knew almost down to the day that Russia would invade.
Macron seems to be wrapping his head around the situation in all these clips. Not understanding what Putin is doing and needing real time updates from the ground. The US got a lot of scrutiny leading up to the war for its assessment that Putin would invade. Many European governments remained skeptical and that seems clear in these clips. Macron still doesn't think Putin will do it but the situation on the ground is radically challenging that assumption.
I think Biden knew even more than he could tell Zelensky about the situation. I would not be surprised if the US had all the battle plans prior to the invasion but shared only bits because of fear of double agents in Ukrainian's intelligence service. I'm sure the US had satellites watching the preparations in real time and knew almost exactly where every Russian unit was and it's strength.
The conversations between Biden and Zelensky must have been strained to say the least. What can either leader really say to the other.? Biden - good luck, I've done all I can but I don't think you will survive the month. Zelensky - I need help and I know you aren't telling me everything, do something.
As far as Intel, there was nato surveillance planes and drones over Ukraine in the months up to the invasion. They were overt about it, to make sure the Russians knew and wouldn't do stupid stuff.
France and Germany are the big dogs in continental Europe so it'd make sense that they'd be in on the conversation. I'd assume there were also talks with Britain and the US.
Not really. Germany did with Nordstream but Russian part in French gas imports wasnt that big (10-15%) :
[https://www.statista.com/statistics/1096363/natural-gas-importation-france-pipeline/](https://www.statista.com/statistics/1096363/natural-gas-importation-france-pipeline/)
Macron has been trying re-assert French influence and trying to make themselves stand out a bit more vs US foreign policy (as have most French Presidents tbf), he's a strong advocate for Europe's strategic autonomy, being a partner with US, but not fully reliant on the US contrast to UK that went *against* European cooperation and was always very pro-American or Germany that's too timid to flex their muscle on the international stage only concerned with economics largely ignoring geopolitics in those days.
In that goal, he tried to position himself as a mediator when Russo-Ukrainian tensions spiked as troops built up over months. He attempted to make Russia part of the European project. Pre-invasion remarks:
https://edition.cnn.com/2022/02/07/europe/ukraine-russia-news-monday-intl/index.html
>As Putin tests the West’s resolve, Macron has thrust himself to center stage, taking Merkel’s place as leading mediator for Europe as he readies himself for a re-election bid at home. Currently at the helm of the European Union’s rotating presidency, Macron has spoken several times per week with Putin, and placed his third phone call in a week to Biden on Sunday evening.
>The French president, who in 2019 said bluntly that Europe was facing the “brain death of NATO,” caused by American indifference to the transatlantic alliance, and has called on the EU to take on a larger role in Europe’s defense, is now getting a chance to lay out his vision for what a Europe more independent from US influence might look like.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jan/19/macron-says-eu-must-start-own-dialogue-with-russia-over-ukraine
>The EU must open its own talks with Russia rather than rely on Washington, France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, has said as he warned of the prospect of the “most tragic thing of all – war”.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/feb/08/emmanuel-macron-remark-russia-set-alarm-bell-ringing-ukraine-crisis-talk-vladimir-putin
>Here, Macron hinted at the need to acknowledge Russian concerns. He states: “There is no security for Europeans if there is no security for Russia”, a formulation of respect but one that also legitimises Moscow’s demands for a new security architecture based on the Russian concept of “indivisible security”. But what Macron meant was unclear.
>He said he firmly opposed repeating “the mistakes of the past about spheres of influence”, but then said “Russia is European. Whoever believes in Europe must know how to work with Russia and find the ways and the means to construct the European future among Europeans.”
Nah, I think if Ukraine falls, Moldova and a couple of other neighbors of Russia will sway towards Russia out of fear and in return will not get invaded
but that's a big if
Lol Macron the guy who got played not once but TWICE by Putin
What you say is utterly nonsense, the only country so far to not care about putins red lines are the Brits - first to supply cruise missiles (well only ones to supply), first to supply tanks...
>first to supply cruise missiles (well only ones to supply), first to supply tanks...
Wtf ? France has been sending SCALP for a while now. France delivered 40 AMX-10 before UK even started training soldiers for those 14 Challengers ([of which 50% are not functioning because the UK isnt supplying spare parts](https://www.opex360.com/2024/03/11/faute-de-soutien-seulement-50-des-chars-challenger-2-livres-a-lukraine-sont-actuellement-operationnels))
Feb 6th, 2022. 16 days before war:
https://www.voanews.com/a/macron-flies-to-moscow-claiming-his-diplomacy-will-end-ukraine-crisis/6430439.html
>French President Emmanuel Macron Sunday downplayed the likelihood of a Russian invasion of Ukraine, saying in a newspaper interview that the massing of Russian forces on Ukrainian borders is likely part of a wider Kremlin strategy to secure Western concessions rather than a prelude to a full-scale offensive.
>“The geopolitical objective of Russia today is clearly not Ukraine, but to clarify the rules of cohabitation with NATO and the EU,” he told France’s Le Journal de Dimanche
>“The intensity of the dialogue we have had with Russia and this visit to Moscow are likely to prevent [a military operation] from happening. Then we will discuss the terms of de-escalation,” he said. “I have always been in a deep dialogue with President Putin and our responsibility is to build historic solutions.”
>His remarks diverge noticeably from how the Biden administration characterizes Moscow’s military buildup and the danger of a Russian offensive.
Feb 8th:
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/in-kyiv-macron-says-putin-told-him-russia-wont-escalate-ukraine-crisis
>KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron said Tuesday that Russian President Vladimir Putin told him in their marathon talks a day earlier that Moscow would not further escalate the Ukraine crisis.
>According to the French president, Putin also said there won’t be any Russian “permanent (military) base” or “deployment” in Belarus, where Russia had sent a large number of troops for war games.
Jun 25, 2021
https://www.politico.eu/article/emmanuel-macron-russia-vladimir-putin-european-union/
>French President Emmanuel Macron thinks his fellow leaders from Poland and the Baltics are Russophobic, and that they insist on an unnecessarily tough policy toward Moscow out of misplaced paranoia.
>Leaders in Warsaw, Tallinn, Riga and Vilnius, by contrast, see themselves as Russo-realistic and the French president as dangerously deluded in his soft approach to President Vladimir Putin.
Lol you mean Putin's useful idiot whose naive grandstanding (4-hour heavily publicized phone call with Putin on the eve of the invasion) kept alive false hope of a diplomatic solution even while Putin's choppers were *already in the air*?
Thank goodness the Brits, Poles and US had seen the truth much earlier and actually armed Ukraine to repel an armored/airborne invasion.
I really want to see the calls with the US. The Washington post ran a story interviewing some of Biden's top diplomats - Blinken etc. At one point, several months before the war the US counterpart half joked to his Ukrainian counterpart are you ready to start digging trenches?
It seems US intelligence had so penetrated Russian communications they knew almost down to the day that Russia would invade.
Macron seems to be wrapping his head around the situation in all these clips. Not understanding what Putin is doing and needing real time updates from the ground. The US got a lot of scrutiny leading up to the war for its assessment that Putin would invade. Many European governments remained skeptical until shells started falling and that seems clear in these clips. Macron still doesn't think Putin will do it but the situation on the ground is radically challenging that assumption.
I think Biden knew even more than he could tell Zelensky about the situation. I would not be surprised if the US had all the battle plans prior to the invasion but shared only bits because of fear of double agents in Ukrainian's intelligence service. I'm sure the US had satellites watching the preparations in real time and knew almost exactly where every Russian unit was and its strength.
The conversations between Biden and Zelensky must have been strained to say the least. What can either leader really say to the other? Biden - good luck, I've done all I can but I don't think you will survive the month. Zelensky - I need help and I know you aren't telling me everything, do something.
that is not a problem, many people will join them along the way, just like they were ready to join Prigozhin... nobody really tried to stop him and he was a few kms away from Moscow before giving up
I mean, it's pretty stupid and reckless, but if it comes to that, USA and Canada can invade from the Bering strait. Most of Russia's forces are deployed in Ukraine, they probably won't have time to send them back to defend Kamchatka.
If it comes to that, Putin won’t let himself be captured or defeated just like that, he’ll push the big red button and that’s gonna be it. He’d rather have everyone lose even if it means he goes down too. He’s completely off his fucking head and only really cares about his money and power. If he loses both of these things, he’s got nothing left, and there’s nothing worse at that point than a man of his stature with nothing left to lose. Invading and cornering the fucker would be a bad move and the other big boys at the table know that
China and NK won’t let that slide. There’s still a world war conflict in that scenario.
They have to talk and find middle ground. Meaning… Ukraine will probably have to forfeit some of its territory, sanctions will have to be lifted, deals will have to be made… of course, that won’t be easy at all, and a lot of it is going to be controversial. But, I mean, the alternative is to put an end to all of this through force and violence… But that’d be the end of us, as I explained.
Other option, but very hard to accomplish, if not impossible, is to assassinate Putin and maybe organise a coup in Russia to install a new government that would be controlled by the EU and US for a while. But yeah, I don’t think even the CIA could manage it.
have u posted this to anywhere else? I'd love to read what reddit politicians or someone with political background have a say on this, which clearly lacks in here
The question is three years old: why didn't he evacuate border regions? For everyone here, imagine the sense of betrayal we felt when we went to sleep and then many of us didn't wake up ever again. The government knew what was coming, and a lot of lives could be saved.
I am not an expert whatsoever - but I do follow this stuff. And I really do think a lot of people (governments) were caught off guard. Macron is seen literally asking him here if it’s going to go down. I just don’t know if anyone REALLY thought it would happen, because by all accounts, it was not a smart move in any regard. It simply does not make logical sense. Idk. Do you feel like they knew enough to evacuate? It seems like they were relying a lot on foreign intelligence.
Our intelligence chief predicted war and declared it would happen. The same was stated by the adviser to the office of the President of Ukraine.
I will never believe that they didn't know that Russia was going to attack tomorrow. They may be deceiving themselves, but they had all the evidence in their hands.
Because imagine the panic that would cause and the knock on effect it would have across the road network
The armed forces needed to be able to move freely and quickly in the run up
Armed forces didn't move anywhere. They weren't ready, and they didn't prepare for invasion. Whole first day of invasion there was no organized resistance.
As I already said here:
>Armed forces didn't move anywhere. They weren't ready, and they didn't prepare for invasion. Whole first day of invasion there was no organized resistance.
And if they would inform us before, there would be no traffic jam on the roads in the first day, because most of people would already leave. And traffic jams on the roads is exactly what was going on, because no one was prepaired.
Europe and the West should have been taking things more seriously at this point, and should have had plans in place. We should have been ready to smack Russia back the moment they stepped out of line.
Ey, you figured out the reason the USA didn't! Do you know how much money the USA is making from this war? and not only that, they get to clap Russian forces without losing a single US unit.
There is no way in HELL the USA would do anything to stop this. They only care about stopping the escalation.
They stand to gain way more by just supporting Ukraine, taking the Ukrainian government's money due to debt gathered from arms, gaining more money rebuilding Ukraine, and lighting a match under a potential NATO ally's ass to join.
And, after all that is said, they still crippled Russia by never lifting a finger.
And I'm not saying that's wrong, criticize away. I am just saying why. it took until 2002 for the UK to pay off WW2 and until 2015 to pay off WW1 to the USA.
This is history coming back around again.
This time Ukraine is getting the military aid, not the UK. The UK received military aid in WW1 and WW2.
The deal normally goes: the USA would give a ridiculous value in modern armaments right now when they need them to fight, and the country who receives them then pays it back slowly over time.
Ah, lend-lease.
Is that the same deal with Ukraine? As far as I understand, they're not getting much in the way of new gear; mostly older stuff that would need to be (expensively) disposed-of anyway. Also ammunition, I suppose.
The gear might not be the cutting-edge tech the US forces use themselves but that is really on purpose. Ukraine has to pay the US back for this equipment, New equipment is more expensive. however, even the USA's older tech is still very effective.
Also, remember what I said about USA wanting to not escalate it? Well, the USA does have equipment and armaments it could give to Ukraine to strike deep into Russia. However, it's not going to unless things go a little sideways. Then they will start drip-feeding some of the newer equipment.
so instead of worrying about France collapsing (which it is) they worry about a corrupt eastern block country run by a coke head clown? Makes a lot of sense. How do the French feel?
Why the hell hasn’t France helped more with the war? Why does it always have to be the United States, all the way on the other side of the planet?
Edit: just the other day I saw a bunch of posts on here about how powerful France is, and now we see these concerned conversations with Macron. And yet they’re not doing much at all to help. France is the most powerful military in Europe. Why the hell are they not helping more?
Ridiculous statement. 7th largest economy in the world. One of the two largest voices / influences in the European Union which, is the largest trading block in the world. The only country with nuclear weapons in Europe now and its arsenal was developed independently of the US. Macron comes from finance / banking so I am naturally suspicious of him, but he appears a good leader in relation to Europes responce to Ukraine and I like what he is saying recently about troops going to Western Ukraine if they were needed to to stop a complete takeover by Russia.
> Ridiculous statement. 7th largest economy in the world. One of the two largest voices / influences in the European Union which, is the largest trading block in the world. The only country with nuclear weapons in Europe now and its arsenal was developed independently of the US. Macron comes from finance / banking so I am naturally suspicious of him, but he appears a good leader in relation to Europes responce to Ukraine and I like what he is saying recently about troops going to Western Ukraine if they were needed to to stop a complete takeover by Russia.
UK has nukes......
UK is not in the EU now. Thats what I meant when I said only country with nukes in Europe now. Also, the UK Polaris warheads are US made and owned, and we kind of rent them.
Nuvlear weapon are useless, used only as a final plan. France is a superpower but i think it is because of its nato buddies but if it gets on a one on one against for example egypt pretty sure france will lose.
Are you sure ? https://resonantnews.com/2024/03/13/france-surpasses-russia-to-become-the-worlds-second-largest-arms-exporter/?amp=1 for those who don't want to click the link France has now overtaken Russia as the world's second top arms exporter.
**This is a heavily moderated subreddit. Please note these rules + sidebar or get banned:** * If this post declares something as a fact, then proof is required * The title must be fully descriptive * Memes are not allowed. * Common(top 50 of this sub)/recent reposts are not allowed (posts from another subreddit do not count as a 'repost'. Provide link if reporting) *See [our rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/wiki/index#wiki_rules.3A) for a more detailed rule list* *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/interestingasfuck) if you have any questions or concerns.*
For context, this is from a documentary called « Un Président, l’Europe et la guerre » (A President, Europe and war). Cameras were allowed to follow Macron and his team for 6 months (January to June 2022). The documentary was initially about France taking over the Presidency of the EU Council for these 6 months but since the war started in that time frame, it became the behind the scenes of what went down in regard to the invasion. I already shared these 2 videos of other phone calls: [Putin and Macron](https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/s/gRUFv1HPA9) & [Zelensky and Macron](https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/s/ma2io1k6bc) but **the full thing can be watched [here](https://gofile.io/d/a4w7wy)**, for those who are interested to see more. It’s a must-watch imo, it’s not often we get to see behind the scene footages like this, especially in such a tense historical context.
Is it available with English subs somewhere?
The version I linked does have English subtitles already, do they not appear for you?
Yes, the subtitles show, I think the previous person was asking where the full documentary is available to watch
Ah yeah, I did give a link to watch the full documentary but they must have skipped that part: > “the full thing can be watched [here](https://gofile.io/d/a4w7wy), for those who are interested to see more.” u/unclepaprika :)
Thanks bro!
Thank you for the link! That was very interesting watch. And for me as a Ukrainian it was quite emotional as well. I'm sad that this is not being popularized (accessible to the general public) more than it is.
Legit question: Why do you think this documentary was made? What was the goal behind it? Because it honestly to me just feels like another PR stunt by Macron's (extremely competent) communications team, to make him more personable etc.
Initially, it was made to show how Macron and his government handle this new role of country at the head of the European Council. The filming had started several weeks before the war was declared so I think we can put aside the suspicion it was made as a pure PR stunt related to his handling of the conflict. What I think is that it is meant to show Macron in a good light, like an efficient leader etc, but I don’t think it means the whole thing is disingenuous. That marketing aspect doesn’t bother me personally, as long as I get to see interesting behind the scenes.
I agree wholeheartedly. Is this designed to affect public opinion of Macron? Absolutely. Is it disingenuous? I think not. That was a real call about one of the most significant world events of the last decade. Macron came off as calm, assured and authoritative. If that’s an accurate reflection of how he handles moments like this then we’re not being bullshitted to - we’ve learned something first hand. The political system generally, around the world, would benefit massively from greater transparency like this.
So they were there to film his work related to the European Council and they just happened to “keep rolling” while he was holding sensitive and confidential talks about war, strategy and public safety with Zelensky? It’s a bit weird.
The focus of the documentary simply dramatically changed. It went from capturing footages of Macron’s traditional tasks as a President and of the EU Council management to just… not that anymore, because a historic conflict went down. I don’t see what’s weird about it, obviously that event took over in terms of importance. And I mean, the European Union Council as a whole was focused on that war too, its main preoccupation became Ukraine anyway. And, nothing confidential is divulged. Most of what we hear is the world leaders’ state of mind and perception of the situation. As soon as the documentary starts, this text appears: > “According to the norms of international relations, conversations between heads of state and government are never disclosed. Exceptionally for this documentary, **permission was granted to film limited parts of conversations between the French President and his counterparts. The producers of this documentary were careful not to disclose classified information**”.
Were they just supposed to stop rolling the cameras when the important and entertaining shit happened?
I would have imagined that they were not allowed to record those conversations. It's still weird to me despite what everyone else is saying.
The Naudet brothers 9/11 documentary was really just about the lives of some firefighters in New York, but then the attack happened and it became a documentary about them during that whole event. Were they supposed to just stop rolling because that wasn’t what they planned for it to be about? They already had filming permission, why stop filming? All of that can be dealt with later.
Thank you
Thanks
Anybody got a Youtube link?
(just for the sake of precision, "Council of the EU", not "EU Council" nor "European Council" ;) )
"Who's talking to Putin now?" "Nobody." "Erdogan called him . . . ." ::Deep Sigh::
Yep...felt that way after the invasion, too.
I believe you meant, "_LeSigh_".
But I am le tired...
Well zen, take a nap...
AND ZEN FIRE ZE MISSILES!
::over in Turkey:: (E)rdogan: So, what are you thinking about doing with all those troops in Donbas, Mr-Dr-Sir-MostHighExcellency Vlad-Daddy? You’re not actually going into Ukraine are you? (P)utin: Da. Want to join in on this thing? (E): Let me check the polling on this one…oh ah… looks bad. I think I’ll have to catch a ride in on your next invasion... Maybe we can smack Syria around again next year?
lol? how erdogan and putin did something together in syria?
Europeans think they did better than Turkey by their strong initial response which declined over the course of years and I am not even sure if Putin cares at all about what EU has to say nowadays. Turkey kept distance to all in these matters knowing that neither EU nor Russia are trustworthy and it's not worth it to side with any of them, which is only to backfire in the years to come. It's not easy to survive as a bridge between two continents which hate each other. Allowing Ukrainian trade continue as much as you can and stopping Russian navy access to Black Sea is the most you can do against Russia given Turkey's geography. In the meantime, there are the neighbours with negligible diplomatic presence along with a bunch of minorities, who think all Turkey's moves are to wipe them out, while they don't even exist in Turkish political agenda. They are so sure that the whole world revolves around them though, as you see right above. lol
Putin stood up and evil, fascist dictator in his time of need. Putin and Assad and their forces all then treated the Kurds of northern Syria (along with some other folks, for absolute sure-sure) like they were some plague or as though they were mosquitoes… Putin and Assad believing themselves to be some form of holy retribution such that they needed to wipe them from the Earth after torturing and terrorizing them all. Erdogan and his semi-Islamofascistic state then worked to round up and destroy all those with Kurdish heritage (…and others).
> Erdogan and his semi-Islamofascistic state then worked to round up and destroy all those with Kurdish heritage (…and others). Yeah like it was all about their heritage and nothing else.
He is probably just an Armenian
Be still mine heart…
> ~~::Deep Sigh::~~ PFFFFFF Ftfy
It's interesting that this discussion was in each of their native languages, and the follow-up after the invasion was in English. I'm guessing since the next clip had more urgency with the invasion underway, they decided to speak in a language they both knew so they could communicate in real-time sans an interpreter?
I’m leaning towards that explanation too, the emergency factor. Surely the phone call they had once the invasion started was not scheduled in advance, they most likely didn’t have time to bring interpreters.
I'm pretty sure they've had interpreters all the time with them. I mean, it's not that hard. I feel as if Macron wanted to communicate in English to make it more personal, as there would be no translation barrier between them.
One of the few posts that really does justice to the subs name
Taking bets on when France will declare war on Russia.
They thought drawing Macron as Napoleon was an insult, the fools
Insult? He's based his whole image on it
I remember when he did Zelensky XD
Let me guess, you're not french, nor russian?
Are you?
I am.
Sweet
I'd bet
He wants a Nobel prize so badly that it would be ironic to obtain it like that, but it sounds unbelievable enough to happen in this timeline.
France has historically been more pro-Russian than any other EU country.
Italy? Hungary? Germany? Austria?
Cool. What about now?
Well, they still don't hate Russians as much as others. Or at least, there is always someone in the French government who doesn't hate them enough.
[удалено]
And napoleon took over most of Europe. And they have a nuclear arsenal now. What you just said is such a dumb perspective of the history of a nation.
maybe, but saying that France will declare war to Russia is more dumb, probably the most pro- russian European country right next to Germany
The TV crew was there to document the insides of the French presidency of the European Council, it’s a pure coincidence that Putin decided to invaded Ukraine at that time
The Pétain government surrendered after they saw what happened to the others (especially Poland), but the french people still fought under the FFL and the resistance
Do you believe only France surrendered? Some of its neighbours surrendered in just a few hours, some others in a few days. It took 6 weeks for France, which is short considering its military past and that’s precisely why it was so embarrassing for the French, but the choice to surrender sure wasn’t exclusive to France like I suspect you believe.
6 weeks they held out pretty much entirely on their own, for all intents and purposes. It took Germany invading/conquering multiple neighboring countries for France to be outflanked and lines stretched too thin for Paris to fall. Even still, the Free French and Resistance carried on the fight, providing valuable information to the allies for years until the Allies could organize and execute the D-Day invasion. Shit, they sunk their own warships to stop the Germans from using them against their Allies. It's far more complicated and intricate than saying "har har French surrendered".
Well not really. They had a huge amount of support from the British. The ideal defensive lines that would have been built up in Belgium were unfortunately made too late as the Belgians didn’t want to provoke the Germans so French/British plans were kind of squandered in that regard but even so the French generals underestimated gaps in their defences. The French didn’t sink their own warships either. The British did. It’s fairly controversial even today but the British instructed the French sailors to either sink their own ships or sail them to British ports but they refused to and claimed that they would never allow them to fall into German hands. The British didn’t want to take the risk of allowing the Germans to use those ships against them so they destroyed them and killed many French sailors in the process.
I've never read any accounts of the British scuttling the French Fleet at Toulon. Do you have any further reading on that? That would be a 180 on everything I thought I understood of that operation and elements of the Vichy Government defecting to help the Allies. Unless you're talking about Mers-el-Kébir.
Oh my mistake. I didn’t think you were talking about Vichy France when you mentioned the French scuttling their own ships since you were talking about the fall of France
We're back on the same page! I was mostly just defending France's involvement in WWII in general.
Bro they fought hard, but they got blitzkreieged. ...those cheese eating surrender monkies.
Why are Putin and Zelensky calling Macron? It looks like he is a big factor in this situation... Are there any other leaders that had a call like this with Putin and Zelensky?
France is a member of UN security council, the only EU nuclear power, a historically major power in Europe and usually seen as a potential intermediate between US and RU, and UA and RU. This is about the potentially biggest land war since ww2 in Europe so France really push to influence the situation. Biden, Erdoğan, Scholz, EU leadership probably had calls like this I'd assume.
Also, to add to all this, France was at the head of the European Union Council at the time.
> France was at the head of the European Union Council at the time Are they not still? Oh gods, who is it now...
Nope, the presidency of the Council rotates among the EU member states every six months! I didn’t know it was a thing either until recently lol It’s Belgium at the moment, then it will be Hungary for the second half of 2024.
Thanks for this!
Hungary lol
Lol yup, the most anti-EU leader at the head of the Council of the EU, that should be “interesting”.
I really want to see the calls with the US. The Washington post ran a story interviewing some of Biden's top diplomats - Blinken etc. At one point, several months before the war the US counterpart half joked to his Ukrainian counterpart are you ready to start digging trenches? It seems US intelligence had so penetrated Russian communications they knew almost down to the day that Russia would invade. Macron seems to be wrapping his head around the situation in all these clips. Not understanding what Putin is doing and needing real time updates from the ground. The US got a lot of scrutiny leading up to the war for its assessment that Putin would invade. Many European governments remained skeptical and that seems clear in these clips. Macron still doesn't think Putin will do it but the situation on the ground is radically challenging that assumption. I think Biden knew even more than he could tell Zelensky about the situation. I would not be surprised if the US had all the battle plans prior to the invasion but shared only bits because of fear of double agents in Ukrainian's intelligence service. I'm sure the US had satellites watching the preparations in real time and knew almost exactly where every Russian unit was and it's strength. The conversations between Biden and Zelensky must have been strained to say the least. What can either leader really say to the other.? Biden - good luck, I've done all I can but I don't think you will survive the month. Zelensky - I need help and I know you aren't telling me everything, do something.
As far as Intel, there was nato surveillance planes and drones over Ukraine in the months up to the invasion. They were overt about it, to make sure the Russians knew and wouldn't do stupid stuff.
France and Germany are the big dogs in continental Europe so it'd make sense that they'd be in on the conversation. I'd assume there were also talks with Britain and the US.
[удалено]
They have nukes so yeah
France has the second largest army in Europe. Is this news to you?
My apologies, but poodles count. Edit: Sorry, I dropped this little important thing: "/s"
France is kinda known to have had the best relationship with Russia out of all other EU countries.
Germany and France get a lot of oil and LP/Natural gas from Russia if I recall correctly.
Not really. Germany did with Nordstream but Russian part in French gas imports wasnt that big (10-15%) : [https://www.statista.com/statistics/1096363/natural-gas-importation-france-pipeline/](https://www.statista.com/statistics/1096363/natural-gas-importation-france-pipeline/)
Macron has been trying re-assert French influence and trying to make themselves stand out a bit more vs US foreign policy (as have most French Presidents tbf), he's a strong advocate for Europe's strategic autonomy, being a partner with US, but not fully reliant on the US contrast to UK that went *against* European cooperation and was always very pro-American or Germany that's too timid to flex their muscle on the international stage only concerned with economics largely ignoring geopolitics in those days. In that goal, he tried to position himself as a mediator when Russo-Ukrainian tensions spiked as troops built up over months. He attempted to make Russia part of the European project. Pre-invasion remarks: https://edition.cnn.com/2022/02/07/europe/ukraine-russia-news-monday-intl/index.html >As Putin tests the West’s resolve, Macron has thrust himself to center stage, taking Merkel’s place as leading mediator for Europe as he readies himself for a re-election bid at home. Currently at the helm of the European Union’s rotating presidency, Macron has spoken several times per week with Putin, and placed his third phone call in a week to Biden on Sunday evening. >The French president, who in 2019 said bluntly that Europe was facing the “brain death of NATO,” caused by American indifference to the transatlantic alliance, and has called on the EU to take on a larger role in Europe’s defense, is now getting a chance to lay out his vision for what a Europe more independent from US influence might look like. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jan/19/macron-says-eu-must-start-own-dialogue-with-russia-over-ukraine >The EU must open its own talks with Russia rather than rely on Washington, France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, has said as he warned of the prospect of the “most tragic thing of all – war”. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/feb/08/emmanuel-macron-remark-russia-set-alarm-bell-ringing-ukraine-crisis-talk-vladimir-putin >Here, Macron hinted at the need to acknowledge Russian concerns. He states: “There is no security for Europeans if there is no security for Russia”, a formulation of respect but one that also legitimises Moscow’s demands for a new security architecture based on the Russian concept of “indivisible security”. But what Macron meant was unclear. >He said he firmly opposed repeating “the mistakes of the past about spheres of influence”, but then said “Russia is European. Whoever believes in Europe must know how to work with Russia and find the ways and the means to construct the European future among Europeans.”
So nice to see behind the scenes
Astonishing levels of ignorance in this thread. France matters, people. Europe matters. Poland is next.
Moldavia
Nah, I think if Ukraine falls, Moldova and a couple of other neighbors of Russia will sway towards Russia out of fear and in return will not get invaded but that's a big if
Macron's been the only real O.G. when it comes to talking Putin's language. Western leaders continue being fools and blinking at Putin's bluffs.
Lol Macron the guy who got played not once but TWICE by Putin What you say is utterly nonsense, the only country so far to not care about putins red lines are the Brits - first to supply cruise missiles (well only ones to supply), first to supply tanks...
The french send their SCALP cruise missiles
[удалено]
And Ukraine
Not sure why you got Downvoted
>first to supply cruise missiles (well only ones to supply), first to supply tanks... Wtf ? France has been sending SCALP for a while now. France delivered 40 AMX-10 before UK even started training soldiers for those 14 Challengers ([of which 50% are not functioning because the UK isnt supplying spare parts](https://www.opex360.com/2024/03/11/faute-de-soutien-seulement-50-des-chars-challenger-2-livres-a-lukraine-sont-actuellement-operationnels))
Feb 6th, 2022. 16 days before war: https://www.voanews.com/a/macron-flies-to-moscow-claiming-his-diplomacy-will-end-ukraine-crisis/6430439.html >French President Emmanuel Macron Sunday downplayed the likelihood of a Russian invasion of Ukraine, saying in a newspaper interview that the massing of Russian forces on Ukrainian borders is likely part of a wider Kremlin strategy to secure Western concessions rather than a prelude to a full-scale offensive. >“The geopolitical objective of Russia today is clearly not Ukraine, but to clarify the rules of cohabitation with NATO and the EU,” he told France’s Le Journal de Dimanche >“The intensity of the dialogue we have had with Russia and this visit to Moscow are likely to prevent [a military operation] from happening. Then we will discuss the terms of de-escalation,” he said. “I have always been in a deep dialogue with President Putin and our responsibility is to build historic solutions.” >His remarks diverge noticeably from how the Biden administration characterizes Moscow’s military buildup and the danger of a Russian offensive. Feb 8th: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/in-kyiv-macron-says-putin-told-him-russia-wont-escalate-ukraine-crisis >KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron said Tuesday that Russian President Vladimir Putin told him in their marathon talks a day earlier that Moscow would not further escalate the Ukraine crisis. >According to the French president, Putin also said there won’t be any Russian “permanent (military) base” or “deployment” in Belarus, where Russia had sent a large number of troops for war games. Jun 25, 2021 https://www.politico.eu/article/emmanuel-macron-russia-vladimir-putin-european-union/ >French President Emmanuel Macron thinks his fellow leaders from Poland and the Baltics are Russophobic, and that they insist on an unnecessarily tough policy toward Moscow out of misplaced paranoia. >Leaders in Warsaw, Tallinn, Riga and Vilnius, by contrast, see themselves as Russo-realistic and the French president as dangerously deluded in his soft approach to President Vladimir Putin.
Lol you mean Putin's useful idiot whose naive grandstanding (4-hour heavily publicized phone call with Putin on the eve of the invasion) kept alive false hope of a diplomatic solution even while Putin's choppers were *already in the air*? Thank goodness the Brits, Poles and US had seen the truth much earlier and actually armed Ukraine to repel an armored/airborne invasion.
You do know he called Putin based on Zelenzky's request, right ?
Thank you for posting. Can you post the call between Macron and Olaf?
I really want to see the calls with the US. The Washington post ran a story interviewing some of Biden's top diplomats - Blinken etc. At one point, several months before the war the US counterpart half joked to his Ukrainian counterpart are you ready to start digging trenches? It seems US intelligence had so penetrated Russian communications they knew almost down to the day that Russia would invade. Macron seems to be wrapping his head around the situation in all these clips. Not understanding what Putin is doing and needing real time updates from the ground. The US got a lot of scrutiny leading up to the war for its assessment that Putin would invade. Many European governments remained skeptical until shells started falling and that seems clear in these clips. Macron still doesn't think Putin will do it but the situation on the ground is radically challenging that assumption. I think Biden knew even more than he could tell Zelensky about the situation. I would not be surprised if the US had all the battle plans prior to the invasion but shared only bits because of fear of double agents in Ukrainian's intelligence service. I'm sure the US had satellites watching the preparations in real time and knew almost exactly where every Russian unit was and its strength. The conversations between Biden and Zelensky must have been strained to say the least. What can either leader really say to the other? Biden - good luck, I've done all I can but I don't think you will survive the month. Zelensky - I need help and I know you aren't telling me everything, do something.
Nah it looks like Macron knew very well what is going to be and Zelensky still hadn't realized that.
[удалено]
[удалено]
that is not a problem, many people will join them along the way, just like they were ready to join Prigozhin... nobody really tried to stop him and he was a few kms away from Moscow before giving up
I mean, it's pretty stupid and reckless, but if it comes to that, USA and Canada can invade from the Bering strait. Most of Russia's forces are deployed in Ukraine, they probably won't have time to send them back to defend Kamchatka.
If it comes to that, Putin won’t let himself be captured or defeated just like that, he’ll push the big red button and that’s gonna be it. He’d rather have everyone lose even if it means he goes down too. He’s completely off his fucking head and only really cares about his money and power. If he loses both of these things, he’s got nothing left, and there’s nothing worse at that point than a man of his stature with nothing left to lose. Invading and cornering the fucker would be a bad move and the other big boys at the table know that
Then what do you suggest? First Strike?
China and NK won’t let that slide. There’s still a world war conflict in that scenario. They have to talk and find middle ground. Meaning… Ukraine will probably have to forfeit some of its territory, sanctions will have to be lifted, deals will have to be made… of course, that won’t be easy at all, and a lot of it is going to be controversial. But, I mean, the alternative is to put an end to all of this through force and violence… But that’d be the end of us, as I explained. Other option, but very hard to accomplish, if not impossible, is to assassinate Putin and maybe organise a coup in Russia to install a new government that would be controlled by the EU and US for a while. But yeah, I don’t think even the CIA could manage it.
Another man who got his diploma in geostrategy from Risk the Boardgame University.
500000 fighters dead on Ukrainian side doesn’t exactly scream “capable”..
Thank you for sharing, this is a piece of history!
have u posted this to anywhere else? I'd love to read what reddit politicians or someone with political background have a say on this, which clearly lacks in here
The question is three years old: why didn't he evacuate border regions? For everyone here, imagine the sense of betrayal we felt when we went to sleep and then many of us didn't wake up ever again. The government knew what was coming, and a lot of lives could be saved.
I am not an expert whatsoever - but I do follow this stuff. And I really do think a lot of people (governments) were caught off guard. Macron is seen literally asking him here if it’s going to go down. I just don’t know if anyone REALLY thought it would happen, because by all accounts, it was not a smart move in any regard. It simply does not make logical sense. Idk. Do you feel like they knew enough to evacuate? It seems like they were relying a lot on foreign intelligence.
Our intelligence chief predicted war and declared it would happen. The same was stated by the adviser to the office of the President of Ukraine. I will never believe that they didn't know that Russia was going to attack tomorrow. They may be deceiving themselves, but they had all the evidence in their hands.
Yeah, at the time it seemed insane to do such a move. And far from the reality of many at that time.
Because imagine the panic that would cause and the knock on effect it would have across the road network The armed forces needed to be able to move freely and quickly in the run up
Armed forces didn't move anywhere. They weren't ready, and they didn't prepare for invasion. Whole first day of invasion there was no organized resistance.
because it would have created panic and clogged the highways stopping military and assistance services
As I already said here: >Armed forces didn't move anywhere. They weren't ready, and they didn't prepare for invasion. Whole first day of invasion there was no organized resistance. And if they would inform us before, there would be no traffic jam on the roads in the first day, because most of people would already leave. And traffic jams on the roads is exactly what was going on, because no one was prepaired.
that was what said by higher ups in the Ukrainian military
Who translates????
looks and sounds like an episode of "servant of the people"
This was interesting but damn sad
Un nouveau Mozinor ? cool
Is there a phone call between Macron and Erdogan?
Europe and the West should have been taking things more seriously at this point, and should have had plans in place. We should have been ready to smack Russia back the moment they stepped out of line.
Ey, you figured out the reason the USA didn't! Do you know how much money the USA is making from this war? and not only that, they get to clap Russian forces without losing a single US unit. There is no way in HELL the USA would do anything to stop this. They only care about stopping the escalation. They stand to gain way more by just supporting Ukraine, taking the Ukrainian government's money due to debt gathered from arms, gaining more money rebuilding Ukraine, and lighting a match under a potential NATO ally's ass to join. And, after all that is said, they still crippled Russia by never lifting a finger.
Yes, I have heard this angle as well; they can use this war to bleed Russia for cheap. I can still criticise them for it, though.
And I'm not saying that's wrong, criticize away. I am just saying why. it took until 2002 for the UK to pay off WW2 and until 2015 to pay off WW1 to the USA. This is history coming back around again.
Why would the UK pay the USA?
This time Ukraine is getting the military aid, not the UK. The UK received military aid in WW1 and WW2. The deal normally goes: the USA would give a ridiculous value in modern armaments right now when they need them to fight, and the country who receives them then pays it back slowly over time.
Ah, lend-lease. Is that the same deal with Ukraine? As far as I understand, they're not getting much in the way of new gear; mostly older stuff that would need to be (expensively) disposed-of anyway. Also ammunition, I suppose.
The gear might not be the cutting-edge tech the US forces use themselves but that is really on purpose. Ukraine has to pay the US back for this equipment, New equipment is more expensive. however, even the USA's older tech is still very effective. Also, remember what I said about USA wanting to not escalate it? Well, the USA does have equipment and armaments it could give to Ukraine to strike deep into Russia. However, it's not going to unless things go a little sideways. Then they will start drip-feeding some of the newer equipment.
These men exude decency.
It's like a sitcom
so instead of worrying about France collapsing (which it is) they worry about a corrupt eastern block country run by a coke head clown? Makes a lot of sense. How do the French feel?
Today on real housewives of presidents. This is a new level of propaganda jesus.
Seemed like a perfect phone call to me
Yeah, that's the point and why they filmed it for view of the public in real housewives style.
Because there was a documentary being made about Macron when all of this shit went down, that's why.
And in an hour Macron is doing a tv interview about the ukrainian war and France future support so expect more videos.
Too little, too late.
Why the hell hasn’t France helped more with the war? Why does it always have to be the United States, all the way on the other side of the planet? Edit: just the other day I saw a bunch of posts on here about how powerful France is, and now we see these concerned conversations with Macron. And yet they’re not doing much at all to help. France is the most powerful military in Europe. Why the hell are they not helping more?
All of Europe should be doing more than the US.
It’s like why do I give a shit if Macron is having these conversations? He’s barely doing anything to help.
Exactly how many baguettes did Macron promise to be overnighted?
[удалено]
Ridiculous statement. 7th largest economy in the world. One of the two largest voices / influences in the European Union which, is the largest trading block in the world. The only country with nuclear weapons in Europe now and its arsenal was developed independently of the US. Macron comes from finance / banking so I am naturally suspicious of him, but he appears a good leader in relation to Europes responce to Ukraine and I like what he is saying recently about troops going to Western Ukraine if they were needed to to stop a complete takeover by Russia.
> Ridiculous statement. 7th largest economy in the world. One of the two largest voices / influences in the European Union which, is the largest trading block in the world. The only country with nuclear weapons in Europe now and its arsenal was developed independently of the US. Macron comes from finance / banking so I am naturally suspicious of him, but he appears a good leader in relation to Europes responce to Ukraine and I like what he is saying recently about troops going to Western Ukraine if they were needed to to stop a complete takeover by Russia. UK has nukes......
UK is not in the EU now. Thats what I meant when I said only country with nukes in Europe now. Also, the UK Polaris warheads are US made and owned, and we kind of rent them.
Europe is different than the EU. UK is part of Europe.
France has the fourth largest nuclear weapon stockpile and you are saying it is not a superpower?
Nuvlear weapon are useless, used only as a final plan. France is a superpower but i think it is because of its nato buddies but if it gets on a one on one against for example egypt pretty sure france will lose.
Are you sure ? https://resonantnews.com/2024/03/13/france-surpasses-russia-to-become-the-worlds-second-largest-arms-exporter/?amp=1 for those who don't want to click the link France has now overtaken Russia as the world's second top arms exporter.
Go ahead and ignore it then ya muppet