Putin, after Macron speech, says some people forget Napoleon’s fate

Russian President Vladimir Putin, speaking a day after French President Emmanuel Macron called Russia a threat to Europe and raised the idea of putting other European countries under France’s nuclear umbrella, said on Thursday that some people had forgotten what happened to Napoleon.

Putin was referring to the French emperor who marched his army across Russia and into Moscow in 1812 but was then forced into a desperate winter retreat with massive loss of life.

“There are still people who want to go back to the times of Napoleon, forgetting how it ended,” Putin said in televised comments, without mentioning Macron by name.