Macron’s rapprochement with Putin is not worth it
French president’s ‘trust-building’ with Russian leader has failed
Someone should inform French President Emmanuel Macron that his “trust-building dialogue” with Russia’s Vladimir Putin has failed to generate any trust. The suspected poisoning of Alexei Navalny with a banned military nerve agent was most likely the final nail in the coffin of this well-intentioned but ill-fated initiative. Yet Mr Macron seems to believe it is worth salvaging.
Just weeks before the outspoken Kremlin critic fell ill, Mr Macron tweeted that the “dialogue” he had started with Mr Putin in 2019 at the presidential Riviera retreat of Bregancon, was “moving forward . . . I will soon travel to Russia”. Mr Navalny’s poisoning and protests in Belarus are forcing him to reconsider.
What has the “dialogue” yielded? Nothing substantial for France and Europe, argues Tatiana Kastoueva-Jean, a researcher at the Ifri think-tank. The Minsk process designed to resolve the conflict in eastern Ukraine following Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 is at an impasse — barring some exchanges of prisoners.
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Read the article on the Financial Times website.
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Authors
Tatiana KASTOUÉVA-JEAN
Directrice du Centre Russie/Eurasie de l'Ifri
