The term “to Macron” first appeared in the Ukrainian information space at the beginning of the full-scale invasion. This concept comes from the name of French President Emmanuel Macron, who at the beginning of the great war was remembered by many Ukrainians not for real help, but only for “deep concern” about the situation in Ukraine. Accordingly, in the Ukrainian lexicon the term “to Macron” is used to mean “showing a worried look regarding a certain situation, but not actually doing anything”.

In the Russian information field, this concept appeared a little later. First in 2022 with the semantics of “calling continuously, repeatedly and to no avail” amid Macron’s constant phone calls to Putin in the hope of stopping the war with diplomacy. And already in 2024, the term “to Macron” in the Russian dictionary acquired a different meaning: “constantly throwing in unrealistic, eccentric, sometimes opposite in content theses to fill the agenda”. And the appearance of such semantics of this word can be called a response of Russian propaganda to the strengthening of the rhetoric of the French President regarding the protection of Ukraine and assistance to it. In particular, this concerns Macron’s statements about the possible dispatch of French troops to Ukraine.

Thus, one can notice some trends. During the time when the French president more or less satisfied the Russians with his cautious policy on the war in Ukraine, they used the term “to Macron” rather in a derisive sense. However, as soon as Macron began to form a new vector against Russian aggression in Ukraine, he openly began to infuriate the Russians. Accordingly, this is how a new semantics of the word “to Macron” arose.

So, Russian propaganda seeks to discredit the French President and devalue his supposed “escalatory statements”, as it makes them, regarding the Russian-Ukrainian war. Russian propaganda may also argue that Macron’s increased rhetoric about the war in Ukraine is a bluff, stupidity, or even crossing Russia’s imaginary “red lines”. However, in reality, this reaction of Russians, in particular the spread of the term “to Macron” with new semantics, rather looks insulted and infantile.