OREANDA-NEWS. French President Emmanuel Macron is ready to refuse to follow the official position of NATO and consider the proposal of his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to introduce a moratorium on the deployment of medium and shorter-range missiles in Europe. This was announced on Wednesday by a German newspaper that the French leader said in a letter to Putin. According to the publication, in a message sent to the Kremlin on October 23, Macron noted that Russia's proposal should be carefully studied. He also emphasized the need to discuss the essence of the initiative in a bilateral and multilateral format.

On August 2, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced that, on the initiative of the American side, the Russian-American Treaty on the Elimination of Intermediate-Range and Shorter-Range Missiles was terminated. The United States explained its actions by Russia's refusal to fulfill the ultimatum requirement to destroy new 9M729 type cruise missiles, which, according to Washington and its NATO allies, violate the provisions of the INF Treaty.

Moscow rejected these allegations, stating that the technical characteristics of the 9M729 missiles were within the parameters allowed by the agreement, and made counterclaims to Washington.