Activists steal Macron waxwork from French museum to highlight trade with Russia

Environmental activists melted distant from a Paris depository with a waxwork of President Emmanuel Macron to protestation astir France’s concern ties with Russia and clime change.

Greenpeace France said successful a statement Monday that they had “borrowed” the exemplary from the Grévin Museum to item gas, chemic fertilizer and atomic powerfulness contracts betwixt the 2 countries which “finance the warfare successful Ukraine.”

“Despite Macron’s planetary speeches of solidarity with Ukraine, France continues to enactment Moscow’s pockets,” the connection said. “As agelong arsenic these dependencies persist, efforts to reconstruct bid to Ukraine and fortify the strategical sovereignty of France and the E.U. volition stay futile,” it added.

Activists entered the depository arsenic regular visitors, grabbed the statue and covered it with a broad earlier rushing it retired towards a waiting car, a Greenpeace spokesperson told Reuters.

The waxwork extracurricular the Russian Embassy successful Paris.Thomas Samson / AFP via Getty Images

“There was nary confrontation with depository information due to the fact that we had planned everything cautiously to guarantee it happened quickly,” the spokesperson said, adding the depository had not been made alert of the enactment beforehand.

NBC News has approached the Grévin Museum — which displays waxwork figures of much than 200 celebrated radical — for comment. Macron's bureau was not instantly disposable for comment.

The waxwork aboriginal reappeared extracurricular the French capital's Russian embassy, alongside respective protesters. Greenpeace said they would instrumentality it to the museum, though it was unclear erstwhile this mightiness happen.

No arrests person been made and the waxwork, worthy a reported €40,000 ($45,674), has not yet been recovered.

Macron, on with chap European leaders similar the U.K.'s Prime Minister Keir Starmer and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, has been starring efforts to broker a ceasefire successful the warfare betwixt Russia and Ukraine which entered its 4th twelvemonth successful February.

But France, on with Belgium and Spain, is among the main importers of liquefied earthy state from Russia according to the Centre for Research connected Energy and Clean Air (CREA), an autarkic probe enactment focused connected aerial pollution.

Russia had made much than €883bn ($973bn) successful gross from fossil substance exports since it archetypal invaded Ukraine successful 2022, of which, France contributed €17.9bn ($20.4bn), according to CREA.

“If we privation to beryllium coherent and consistent, we cannot, connected the 1 hand, enactment Ukraine and, connected the other, proceed to import specified monolithic amounts of gas, chemic fertilizers, and uranium,” Greenpeace France manager Jean-Francois Julliard told Reuters.