Macron & Putin Meet To Avert War – As US Scrambles For Europe Energy Alternatives

Assessment: “I have always had a deep dialogue with President Putin and it is our responsibility to build historic solutions. There is, I think, an openness from President Putin to achieve this.” …

In a bid to avert a war over Ukraine, and with energy security high on the agenda, French President Emmanuel Macron is in Moscow on Monday where he and Russian President Vladimir Putin have kicked off what’s expected to be “substantive and quite prolonged” talks, as the Kremlin previewed it. Throughout the past weeks of boiling tensions it’s largely been Germany and France leading attempts to pursue robust diplomacy, quite apart from constant sanctions threats and talk of military options out of Washington.

“And I looked, and behold, a white horse. He who sat on it had a bow; and a crown was given to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer” Rev. 6:2

Macron said in a weekend interview with Le Journal du Dimanche just before flying to Moscow, “The geopolitical objective of Russia today is clearly not Ukraine, but to clarify the rules of cohabitation with NATO and the EU.” While during the Putin meeting, no major breakthroughs are expected, given Macron can’t make the kind of serious concessions Putin is looking for on NATO or Europe’s behalf, there’s at least hope it’ll cool tensions and offer a further path of dialogue

Macron further said in the interview of the Putin meeting, “We will discuss the terms to de-escalate,” but also underscored that “One has to be realistic.”

“We will not achieve unilateral gestures, but it is indispensable to avoid a degradation of the situation before we build mechanisms and gestures of reciprocal trust,” he added, according to a CNBC translation. “I have always had a deep dialogue with President Putin and it is our responsibility to build historic solutions. There is, I think, an openness from President Putin to achieve this.”

On Sunday Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan in interviews with the Sunday news shows claimed that Russia’s military could invade Ukraine “any day now”.