Macron denies bringing cocaine on to Kyiv train
Credit: Reuters
Emmanuel Macron has denied bringing cocaine onto a train headed to Kyiv for a meeting with Volodymyr Zelensky and Ukraine's European allies.
On Monday, his office took the unusual step of addressing a video that showed the French president hiding a white object as he sat alongside Sir Keir Starmer and Friedrich Merz, the German chancellor.
The footage had gone viral over the weekend due to the mystery object's apparent resemblance to a bag of the class A drug.
The video was shared widely by Kremlin-backed social media channels. In reaction, Maria Zakharova, Russia's foreign ministry spokesman, claimed that 'the fate of Europe is being decided by utterly [drug] dependent individuals' and accused Mr Zelensky of being an 'unstable drug addict'.
Alex Jones, a hard-Right US radio host and prominent conspiracy theorist, reinforced the Russian claims as he reposted the video and wrote: 'Cocaine-fuelled nuclear war, loving, megalomaniacs on display!'
He called the Ukrainian leader a 'known cocaine enthusiast' and said that all three world leaders looked 'cracked out'.
The Elysée Palace insisted the object was a tissue in a post on its official X account:
'This is a tissue. For blowing your nose' it posted alongside a high-definition image of the crumpled object. Next to it, the Palace posted a picture of the three leaders with the caption: 'This is European unity. To build peace.'
The Elysée added: 'When European unity becomes inconvenient, disinformation goes so far as to make a simple tissue look like drugs.'
It accused 'France's enemies, both at home and abroad' of spreading disinformation, but stopped short of pointing the finger at Russia.
Kirill Dmitriev, Vladimir Putin's top negotiator, reposted the video, writing: 'Is this footage AI or real? If it's real – are we looking at sugar or something entirely different? If it's something else, it explains a lot of recent ideas and proposals.'
A second conspiracy arose over the so-called 'cocaine spoon', which Mr Merz rapidly concealed when the photographers entered the room. Footage later showed it was a plastic tea stirrer.
This month, France said that the GRU, Russia's military intelligence service, was ramping up a social media and cyber campaign against Mr Macron's administration. The French president has been the target of false conspiracies, fed by Russian media.
Mr Macron, Sir Keir and Mr Merz were travelling on a night train from Poland to the Ukrainian capital for a meeting on Saturday morning with Mr Zelensky and Donald Tusk, the Polish prime minister.
At the talks, Kyiv's allies demanded that Putin agree to an unconditional 30-day ceasefire in Ukraine by Monday, which he rejected.
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