British News Agency

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov confirmed at today's press briefing that Russia is maintaining technical contacts with France.

Peskov said at the briefing, "We can confirm that the contacts indeed took place and, if desired and necessary, they could help establish a rapid dialogue at the highest level. We have not received any requests in this direction so far, but we have noted Macron’s statement about the need to restore relations with Russia."

Peskov added that Russia has always supported maintaining dialogue and warned of the damages that could occur if relations were brought back to "zero." The Kremlin spokesperson also noted that no similar initiatives had been received from other European countries so far.

Earlier, Macron proposed to several European leaders to restart dialogue with Russia. The French leader stated that Paris had reopened a technical communication channel with Moscow and expressed hope that the EU would develop an "organized approach" to contacts with Russia in the future.

The leader of the French right-wing party Les Patriots, Florian Philippot, expressed the opinion that Macron is trying to improve relations with Russia and President Vladimir Putin in order to present himself as a peace envoy and save his political career.