Macron in Russia to "clear points of common agreement" with Putin
A year after their first meeting at the Palace of Versailles, Emmanuel Macron and Vladimir Putin meet Thursday near St. Petersburg for a return match.
Emmanuel Macron performs his first official visit to Russia on Thursday, May 24th and Friday, May 25th. A year after his meeting with Vladimir Putin at the Palace of Versailles, which had marked the spirits and launched the new French president on the international scene, these reunions are eagerly awaited.
This trip will be an opportunity for both leaders to discuss the thorny Ukrainian and Syrian issues. According to the Elysee, Emmanuel Macron has the desire "to have a substantial dialogue (...) to identify common points of agreement" on these topics. "We are doing it with our eyes open", "with the awareness of the difficulty that this represents", underlined the French presidency.
In one year, the Russian lines have not moved, whether on Syria where Moscow continues to support the regime of Bashar al-Assad or Ukraine. Vladimir Putin once again ruled out any return of Crimea to Ukraine and recently inaugurated the very symbolic bridge connecting Russia and the former peninsula annexed by Moscow in 2014
In addition to these discrepancies, the Skripal affair, named after the former Russian double agent whose death in the United Kingdom is attributed to Russia, was revived last March, which brought out the specter of the cold war and provoked a Massive and coordinated expulsion of Russian diplomats by Western countries.
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Source: France24