PARIS: Greenpeace activists on Monday stole a wax figure of President Emmanuel Macron from a Paris museum and placed it in front of the Russian embassy as part of a protest against French economic ties with Moscow in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine.

According to a police source, two women and a man entered the Grevin Museum posing as tourists and, once inside, changed their clothes to pass for workers. The activists slipped out through an emergency exit with the wax work, estimated to be worth 40,000 euros, which they had covered up.

The museum said that the activists had called to promise that the statue would be returned `unharmed`. `They had clearly done their research very thoroughly,` a museum spokeswoman said.

According to the spokeswoman, the activists distracted a security guard byasking a question about a disabled access lift, while some of them donned maintenance coats. After making away with the Macron wax figure, the Greenpeace activists placed it in front of the Russian embassy in a protest against the economic ties between France and Russia in the gas, chemical fertiliser and nuclear sectors. The action in front of the embassy lasted only a few minutes.

The activists unfurled a Russian flag behind the Macron statue, while one man held up a yellow placard reading `Business is business`. The activists also threw fake banknotes around.

`For us, France is playing a double game,` said Jean-Francois Julliard, head of Greenpeace France. `Emmanuel Macron embodies this double discourse: he supports Ukraine but encourages French companies to continue trading with Russia,` Julliard said.-AFP