A French newspaper has refused to publish a message of condolence from the Russian Embassy in Paris to the relatives of the victims of the Georgian and South Ossetian conflict. The daily had initially agreed to sell its advertisement space on the front pa

The embassy says it had an agreement with Libération to publish the message of sympathy on the front page at a cost of 9,000 euros. The publication was to be illustrated by a photo of the ruined South Ossetian capital, Tskhinval.

The original text was edited and a phrase containing the words “an attack of the Tbilisi regime” was deleted.

At the last minute the managing editor of Libération pulled the message. Didier Pourquery told RT there are two reasons behind that.

“The first reason is I was not aware that this advert was to be published. The second reason is that we don’t want to publish controversial political ads,” he said.

The Russian condolences were to be published in the newspaper on September 16, the 40th day after Georgia launched a military assault on the capital, Tskhinval.