PARIS: French President Emmanuel Macron said on Friday he "very strongly" condemned Moscow's behaviour towards Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny from his poisoning to his arrest and to the expulsion of foreign diplomats.

"I stand in solidarity with the three countries that have had their diplomats expelled," Macron told a news conference following a virtual meeting of the France-German Defence and Security Council.

Moscow earlier Russia on Friday announced the expulsion of diplomats from Sweden, Germany and Poland, accusing them of taking part in illegal protests last month against Navalny's jailing.