French FM Evades Question on Why Sputnik, RT Denied Accreditation in Macron HQ

French Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Jean-Yves Le Drian, when asked why Sputnik news agency and RT broadcaster were refused accreditation in French President Emmanuel Macron's election campaign headquarters in April, abstained from answering the question.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — In May, French President Emmanuel Macron said that RT broadcaster and Sputnik news agency were denied access to his campaign headquarters due to "spread of false information."

"The president of the [French] Republic [Macron] expressed himself regarding this issue. He said what he wanted to say. You probably do not think that I will contradict my president today, when I am in Moscow," Le Drian said after holding talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

RT broadcaster and Sputnik news agency were accused by Macron's election campaign headquarters in April of spreading fake news, in particular, regarding Macron's alleged offshore bank accounts and refused accreditation a number of times.

Sputnik and RT's editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan repeatedly stressed that not a single example of spreading misinformation by the Russian media was ever provided by Macron's team.