Diplomacy
Article reserved for subscribers
Received this Monday in the Kremlin by Vladimir Putin, the French president wants to put Europe, less alarmist than Washington, at the center of the diplomatic game. A risky but necessary bet in the face of the threat of war in Ukraine.
This is a new stage in the tensions that have been driving Russia, Europe and the United States for three months, and in the process of intense negotiations that they entail. Emmanuel Macron is going to the Kremlin on Monday for a face-to-face meeting with Vladimir Putin to promote the “de-escalation” around Ukraine. He will certainly be entrusted with messages to pass on to his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, whom he will meet the following day in Kiev.
Since the start of his mandate in 2017, due in particular to the health crisis, the French president has never been welcomed into the heart of Russian power. The bilateral meeting should take place in the afternoon and could spill over into the evening. According to a French diplomatic source, Vladimir Putin planned to “take the time you need to get to the bottom of things”. A desire for an “open office” displayed by the Russian president since the start of the crisis. With, however, one condition: that his interlocutors do not come empty-handed. In the Kremlin, we do not come to talk to say nothing.
Since May 2018 and the last meeting in Russia between the two heads of state, in Saint Petersburg, the possibility of a visit by Emmanuel Macron to Moscow has often been announced in diplomatic circles, but never realized. It almost took place in the spring of 2020, when Russia, France and Germany expressed a desire to revive the Minsk agreements,…