Macron calls Russia "one of the last colonial empires"

This is reported by Le Figaro.

"Russia is one of the last colonial empires... and decided to invade a neighboring country to defend its interests", Macron said.

At a briefing together with the president of Benin, as part of his African tour, Emmanuel Macron compared Russia's invasion of Ukraine to the imperial wars of the past centuries. 

"This is a war for territories that, until now, were thought to have already disappeared from the European continent. This is a war like at the beginning of the 20th, in the 19th century", Macron said, noting that African nations themselves had such an experience.