French President Emmanuel Macron spoke yesterday for two hours with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, for the first time since August 19, 2022. Members of the “Coalition of the Willing”—the U.K., Germany and France—have not been so willing to speak with Putin, so yesterday’s phone call was news in and of itself. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz had spoken once with Putin on Nov. 15, 2024 (not long after the U.S. election of Donald Trump), and that drew the wrath of Ukraine’s acting president Volodymyr Zelenskyy. He said it was opening “Pandora’s box.”
The Russian President’s website stated:
“The two leaders had a detailed discussion on the state of events in the Middle East in light of the conflict between Iran and Israel, as well as the U.S. strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities.” The two “emphasized that Russia and France, as permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, bore particular responsibility for upholding peace and security, in the Middle East.... The two leaders spoke in favor of settling the crisis around Iran’s nuclear program and any other differences arising in the Middle East exclusively via political and diplomatic means. They agreed to maintain contact in order to coordinate their stances if necessary.”
Then on Ukraine: “Putin reiterated that the Ukraine conflict was a direct consequence of the policies pursued by the Western countries, which had for years been ignoring Russia’s security interests, creating an anti-Russia staging ground in Ukraine, and condoning the violations of rights of Ukraine’s Russian-speaking citizens, and at present were pursuing a policy of prolonging hostilities while supplying the Kiev regime with a variety of modern weaponry.”
