Russian official mocks Emmanuel Macron getting 'a right hook' from wife Brigitte: 'Hand of the Kremlin'

MOSCOW, RUSSIA: Russia’s foreign ministry isn’t letting go of a chance to mock French President Emmanuel Macron after a video showed his wife, France's first lady Brigitte Macron, shoving his face away before exiting a plane.

The widely circulated video shows Brigitte’s hands suddenly appearing from the plane’s doorway and shoving her husband’s face away as security officials open the gate to welcome the couple in Hanoi, Vietnam, on Sunday, May 25.

While Macron sought to brush off the incident as a 'joking around' moment, Russia's foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova believes it was much more than that: maybe ‘a right hook’ from Brigitte or the 'hand of the Kremlin'?"

Russia Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova mocks Emmanuel Macron over viral video

On Monday, May 26, Zakharova took a jibe at Emmanuel Macron as she claimed the French president had received "a right hook from his wife" in the viral video.

The Russian official also sarcastically suggested various explanations for the gesture. “Did the first lady decide to cheer up her husband with a gentle pat on the cheek and miscalculate her strength?” she wrote on Telegram.

“Was she handing him a tissue, but missed? Did she want to fix his collar but ended up reaching the beloved face,” the spokesperson continued before adding, “Here’s a hint: maybe it was the ‘hand of the Kremlin’?”

The video has been shown repeatedly on Russian state television and has been making the rounds on accounts hostile to the French president.

Emmanuel Macron tries to brush off viral incident

In the shocking video, Brigitte's arm is seen emerging from the left of the open doorway as she places both hands on her husband's face and gives it a shove.

The president appears startled but quickly recovers and turns to wave through the open door. Meanwhile, the French first lady, concealed at the moment of contact, making it impossible to see her facial expressions.

The couple then walks down the staircase for the official welcome by Vietnamese authorities, but Brigitte Macron declines her husband's offered arm.

An Elysee spokesman played down the incident, denying it showed an argument between the couple. "It was a moment when the president and his wife were relaxing one last time before the start of the trip by having a laugh," the official said, according to the Daily Mail.

Macron himself dismissed speculation that the first lady shoved him, claiming the couple was just playing around.

“There’s a video showing me joking and teasing my wife and somehow that becomes a sort of geo-planetary catastrophe, with people even coming up with theories to explain it," Macron said, adding "We are horsing around and, really, joking with my wife."

Macron did not reject the clip's legitimacy, but he blamed the videographers for blowing it out of proportion. "The videos are all real, and yes, sometimes people tamper with them, but people are attributing all kinds of nonsense to them," he stated.