Jacques Serais / Photo credits: AFP
modified to
06:55, March 18, 2024
Vladimir Putin was therefore re-elected on Sunday for a fifth term as head of the Russian Federation. A victory which is unlikely to warm up his relationship with Emmanuel Macron. This weekend again, the French head of state once again strongly criticized the master of the Kremlin.
In April 2022, Vladimir Putin sent a message of congratulations to Emmanuel Macron on his re-election. Two years later, the tenant of the Élysée Palace refused to do the same for the master of the Kremlin.
Macron, one of Putin’s first opponents?
And the President of the Republic explains it in the columns of Parisian : “The death of Alexei Navalny and the banning of all his opponents mean that we cannot congratulate someone on an election bordered by the death of those who fought for pluralism in Russia.”
On this occasion, Emmanuel Macron even renews his remarks on the subject of sending ground troops to Ukraine: “Perhaps at some point (…) we will have to have operations on the ground, whatever they may be. , to counter Russian forces,” he explains. “The strength of France is that we can do it.” A message of assumed firmness, with a nuance.
The head of state specifies that he “does not want it” and that he “will not take the initiative”. At the dawn of his fifth term, Vladimir Putin therefore sees Emmanuel Macron emerging as one of his first opponents.