By PTI
NICE: While most of the world is shunning President Vladimir Putin over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, one of the few leaders keeping an open line of communication is French President Emmanuel Macron.
Macron’s diplomatic efforts to prevent the war failed, but he’s not giving up: the two men have spoken four times since Russian forces attacked Ukraine on February 24, and 11 times over the past month.
The French leader, whose country holds the European Union’s rotating presidency, is now one of the few outsiders with a view into Putin’s mindset at the time of the largest military invasion in Europe since World War II.
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett is also becoming a mediator, meeting Putin on a surprise visit to Moscow on Saturday and speaking with him again by phone on Sunday.
Macron’s relentless push for dialogue reflects France’s post-World War II tradition of carving out its own geopolitical path and its refusal to blindly follow the United States.
After Russian troops pushed deep into Ukraine, Macron’s resolve to maintain communication channels with Putin is providing Western allies with insight into the Russian leader’s state of mind, his intentions on the battlefield and at home in Russia as the Kremlin cracks down on opponents.
“He is keeping a diplomatic channel open for the West in case Putin might want to de-escalate and look for a way out of this crisis,” said Benjamin Haddad, a senior director for Europe at the Atlantic Council in Paris and a member of Macron’s party.
The two leaders address each other through interpreters with the familiar French word for “you” – “tu” – rather than the formal “vous,” an Elysee presidential palace official said after one phone call.
Macron has also spoken to Putin on behalf of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Haddad said, trying to extract some mercy from Putin: local cease-fires, safe passage for trapped civilians and access to humanitarian aid.
Instead of mercy, the French president on Monday denounced Moscow’s “cynicism” after a new pledge for humanitarian corridors from some under-fire Ukrainian cities – with most of the routes leading toward Russia or its ally Belarus, which served as a launching ground for the invasion.
Saying that “we are going to protect people by bringing them to Russia is hypocritical,” Macron said in an interview on LCI television.
During their most recent call on Sunday that came at Macron’s request, the French leader and Putin focused for nearly two hours on the safety of Ukraine’s nuclear plants.
Putin said he doesn’t intend to attack them and agreed on the principle of “dialogue” between the International Atomic Energy Agency, Ukraine and Russia on the issue, according to a French official who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with the French presidency’s practices.
There is “absolutely no illusion at the Elysee that Putin will keep his word on anything he promises,” Haddad said, or that Putin will change his mind about the invasion.
But Haddad said that it’s important that Macron keeps trying to engage Putin even as the West punishes Russia and strengthens Ukraine’s defenses.
And breaking with the diplomatic norm of keeping such conversations secret, the French presidency has widely shared the content of Macron’s talks with Putin.
Macron’s advisers and the president himself detailed the excruciating efforts to prevent the war and then laid bare Putin’s broken promises of peace.
That helped Macron galvanise support for the toughest sanctions against Russia, uniting the notoriously divided 27-member EU and revive NATO’s geopolitical role.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will go to Paris on Tuesday to hear from Macron directly about his latest conversations with Putin.
But US officials remain unconvinced that Macron’s efforts – or any other leader’s – have had any significant impact on Putin’s decison-making process.
The French president has been clear from the start: Putin alone is to blame for the death and destruction in Ukraine and the major consequences of the war for France and Europe.
But on the other hand, if Putin wants to talk, he will listen.
Putin called on Thursday.
The number of refugees fleeing Ukraine had already topped 1 million and several towns in the east were in ruins.
Macron picked up and they talked for 90 minutes.
An official in the French presidency rushed to brief reporters on the conversation.
Putin told Macron the military operation in Ukraine is “going according to plan” and he will continue “until the end,” the official said on customary condition of anonymity.
Putin claimed that “war crimes” were being committed by Ukrainians.
He called them “Nazis,” the official said.
There’s no need to negotiate, Putin said.
He will achieve the “neutralisation and disarmament of Ukraine” with his army.
Macron “spoke the truth” to Putin, the official said, and explained how his war on Ukraine is perceived by the West.
“I asked him to stop attacks on Ukraine. At this point, he refuses,” Macron tweeted.
He said dialogue will continue.
“We must prevent the worst from happening.”
Since he was elected president in 2017, Macron has shown a keen interest in forging personal relationships with world leaders.
“Macron stands out among European Union leaders with his willingness to be in the spotlight, to drive foreign policy and push things ahead,” said Silvia Colombo, an expert on EU foreign relations at the International Institute in Rome.
There is no other foreign leader that Macron has tried to bring closer to his corner than Putin.
Macron was confident that a mixture of personal charm and the splendor of France’s past would convince Putin to keep Russia within the European security habitat.
Macron first hosted Putin in the Place of Versailles in 2017.
Two years later they discussed stalled Ukraine peace talks in Macron’s summer residence on the French Riviera as Macron tried to build on European diplomacy that had helped ease hostilities in the past.
It’s become clear over the past several weeks that Putin was on the warpath even as he denied it, sitting across from Macron at a very long table during his last visit to Moscow.
Macron wanted to believe him, Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said after critics claimed the French president has fallen into the old European trap of appeasing Putin’s Russia.
“The president is not naive,” Le Drian said on the eve of Russia’s invasion.
“He knows the methods, the character and the cynical nature of Putin.”
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday assured Lithuania and Latvia of NATO protection and American support as he made quick visits to two of the three Baltic states that are increasingly on edge as Russia presses ahead with its invasion of Ukraine.
Along with Estonia, which Blinken will visit on Tuesday, the former Soviet republics are NATO members, and the Biden administration is aiming to calm any fears they have about their security in the event Russia chooses to expand its military operations.
In the Latvian capital of Riga, Blinken said the Baltics have “formed a democratic wall that now stands against the tide of autocracy” that Russia is pushing in Europe.
“The United States is more committed than ever to standing with you as our democracies rise to the challenge,” he said.
“We are bolstering our shared defense so that we and our allies are prepared,” Blinken said.
He stressed that the US commitment to NATO’s mutual defense pact is “sacrosanct” and that NATO and the United States were discussing the permanent basing of troops in the Baltics.
“We will defend every inch of NATO territory if it comes under attack,” he said.
“No one should doubt our readiness. No one should doubt our resolve.”
Leaders in both countries expressed grave concerns about Russian President Vladimir Putin’s intentions as it relates to former Soviet bloc countries that are now allied or otherwise linked to the West.
“We have no illusions about Putin’s Russia anymore,” Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics said after meeting Blinken in Riga.
“We don’t really see any good reason to assume that Russia might change its policy.”
Rinkevics said that the Russian invasion of Ukraine had shown the Baltic countries, in particular, the need to bolster air and coastal defenses and that Latvia would like its security cooperation with NATO to be “more efficient.”
“Unfortunately, the worsening security situation in the Baltic region is of great concern for all of us and around the world,” Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda told Blinken earlier in Vilnius.
“Russia’s reckless aggression against Ukraine once again proves that it is a long-term threat to European security, the security of our alliance.”
Memories of Soviet rule are still fresh in the Baltics and since the invasion of Ukraine last month, NATO has moved quickly to boost its troop presence in its eastern flank allies while the US has pledged additional support.
Blinken’s opened his Baltic tour in Vilnius, where Lithuanian support for Ukraine’s resistance to the Russian invasion was palpable as signs of solidarity with Ukrainians are evident in many businesses and on houses, public buildings and buses.
He later travelled to Riga, which has been similarly festooned with blue and yellow Ukrainian flags.
Lithuania’s Nauseda said a policy of deterrence was no longer enough and that “forward defense” was now needed.
He predicted that “Putin will not stop in Ukraine if he will not be stopped.”
“It is our collective duty as a nation to help all Ukrainians with all means available,” said Nauseda.
“By saying all, I mean, indeed all means all, if we want to avoid the Third World War. The choice is in our hands.”
Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis called for a surge in assistance to Ukraine, noting that the NATO allies “are doing a lot, but we cannot stop.”
He also called for an immediate halt to imports of Russian energy.
“We cannot pay for oil and gas with Ukrainian blood,” he said.
Lithuania is also dealing with pressure from another large power, China, for its relationship with Taiwan, the island China regards as a renegade province.
China has taken actions, including halting imports of certain products, against Lithuania for allowing Taiwan to open a de facto embassy in Vilnius.
Blinken said the Ukraine situation was relevant to Lithuania’s Taiwan situation as all countries should have the right to pursue their own foreign policies.
“Every nation is free to associate with whom it chooses,” he said.
“The United States continues to stand by Lithuania and every nation to choose its own path.”
Blinken arrived in the Baltics late Sunday from non-aligned Moldova, which is also warily watching the war on its doorstep, and Poland, where he visited the Polish-Ukrainian border and met with refugees from Ukraine.
After his meetings with senior Latvian officials and Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid in Riga, Blinken will visit Tallinn, Estonia on Tuesday and then go on to Paris for talks with French President Emmanuel Macron.
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett met with Putin over the weekend and Macron has been in frequent contact with the Russian leader.
Both Israel and France sought meetings with Blinken to discuss those interactions.
Blinken declined to discuss those meetings in detail before they have been held but said: “There is certainly no change in our message to Moscow, our message to Russia and to President Putin: End the war. End it now.”
