ISTANBUL

Chairman of the Russian State Duma Vyacheslav Volodin said early on Wednesday that former German Chancellor Angela Merkel and former French President Francois Hollande should be punished for plotting to start a war with Russia.

“Confessions made by the representative of the Kyiv regime and the former leaders of Germany and France should be used as evidence for an international military tribunal. These leaders plotted to start a world war with predictable consequences. And they deserve punishment for their crimes,” Volodin said in a message on Telegram.

Volodin also said the time has shown Russia’s “special military operation” in Ukraine turned out to be a correct decision taken in advance.

“The revelations of Merkel and Hollande that the Minsk agreements were a way to give Kyiv time to militarize, once again confirm how real and serious the threat to the security of not only the inhabitants of Donbas, but also the citizens of our country was,” Volodin further said.

He added that the decision taken by Moscow “helped prevent a catastrophe, the death of a huge number of people.”

On Jan. 5, Volodin claimed that Merkel and Hollande sabotaged the Minsk agreements and were recognized by the world community as the perpetrators of the conflict in Ukraine, in reference to Merkel’s comments in a German media interview last December where she said deals brokered by Paris and Berlin in 2014 and 2015 were only meant to buy Ukraine time to become stronger.​​​​​​​