We were unable to find any confirmation that Sachs actually knows or has ever personally met the French president. The Legion of Honor was awarded to the economist not by Macron himself, but by the French ambassador to the United States
Pro-Russian sources have been circulating a quote from Macron, who allegedly admitted that NATO and the alliance’s ambitions to expand eastward are actually responsible for the Russian invasion. He supposedly said this in a personal conversation with American economist Jeffrey Sachs when presenting him with the Legion of Honor.
However, this news is manipulative. First, there is no evidence that Jeffrey Sachs has ever personally met Macron, and that they have a close enough relationship that the French president would confide private thoughts on political issues with him. We were unable to find any photos of Sachs and Macron online, nor any information about their joint participation in any events: moreover, even the Order of the Legion of Honor mentioned in the news was not presented to Jeffrey Sachs in 2022 personally by the French President, but by the country’s then ambassador to the United States, Philippe Etienne. That is, at least this part of the report is made up.
Secondly, this quote completely contradicts all public statements and actions of Emmanuel Macron in connection with the full-scale invasion. Thus, in June 2022 — that is, just a month and a half after the so-called «conversation» with Sachs — at the NATO summit in Madrid, the French president voiced the exact opposite position: «Russia bears full responsibility for this war, as well as for the serious consequences it imposes on the entire world, in particular on energy and food security. I once again reject the arguments that some want to impose in order to make people believe that this war and its consequences are connected with the hypothetical desire of the “West”, or NATO, to impose itself on the rest of the world. This is a lie that seeks to overturn reality, justify aggression and take advantage of the consequences. This is not a question of the “West” versus the “rest”, this is a question of war or peace in Europe». That is, in Macron’s opinion, only Russia is to blame for Russian aggression. Since then, France has consistently provided Ukraine with financial and military support, and Macron has joined the coalition of the willing and declared that Russia has no veto power over Ukraine’s accession to NATO and the EU: «There should be no restrictions on Ukraine’s armed forces or its cooperation with third countries,» says a statement issued by the French leader together with Friedrich Merz and Keir Starmer following a telephone conversation in August this year.
Yet Jeffrey Sachs himself believes that one of the main reasons for the war was NATO’s expansion to the east, which Russia perceives as a threat to its security. According to Sachs, the US and NATO should offer Ukraine neutrality and refuse to further expand the alliance to Russia’s borders. In his opinion, diplomacy — not sanctions or military support — should be the main means of achieving peace. Sachs is also concerned about the prospect of nuclear escalation. He probably wanted to give more weight to his own views with the fabricated quote from Macron.
We debunked another fake about the French president in the article Fake: The French Foreign Ministry Denies Macron Called Zelenskyy.
