French President Emmanuel Macron has not ruled out revoking the Legion of Honor awarded by his predecessor Jacques Chirac to Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2006, explaining that he wants to choose "the right moment for it."
This is reported by Le Figaro.
Macron presented Volodymyr Zelenskyi, who was passing through Paris on his second trip outside Ukraine since the beginning of the Russian invasion, with the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor on Wednesday evening. This is the highest award that a French president can bestow on a colleague. Answering journalists' questions after the EU summit in Brussels on the night from Thursday to Friday, he explained that this award is "an element of justice and recognition of our country" towards the Ukrainian president.
But the informal ceremony of awarding Volodymyr Zelenskyі with the Legion of Honor on the Champs Elysees revived the demands of those who are in favor of France stripping Putin of this award. In 2006, Jacques Chirac presented the Russian president with the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor. This decision immediately caused controversy. The organization "Reporters Without Borders", in particular, tried through the court, but in vain, to deprive the owner of the Kremlin of this award.
Referring to the "symbolic but important issue", President Macron said: "I do not deny myself anything (...), but this is not the decision I took today." These decisions are "always about content, and I think you have to choose the right time to make them."
As reported, French President Emmanuel Macron said that in military aid to Ukraine, he prefers "more useful" and "faster" weapons than combat aircraft.