The President of France, Emmanuel Macron, was in an embarrassing position this Tuesday (8). The Russian government denied his statement that President Vladimir Putin, in a meeting with the French head of state the day before, had committed to reducing the military escalation on the border with Ukraine.
This Tuesday, after a meeting in Kiev with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Macron declared that at the meeting in Moscow, Putin told him he “will not initiate an escalation. I think it’s important.”
However, in statements to journalists also on Tuesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov denied that Putin had made this commitment. “This is wrong in essence. Moscow and Paris cannot make any deals. It is simply impossible”, said Peskov, suggesting that a treaty could only be established with the United States.
“France is a leading country in the European Union, France is a member of NATO , but Paris is not the leader. In this bloc, a very different country [Estados Unidos] is in charge. So, what businesses can we talk about?”, he snapped.
Russia claims it is concentrating soldiers on the border with Ukraine (Kiev says the contingent is already over thousand soldiers) for the purpose of self-defense. Moscow claims permanent veto on Ukraine’s possible entry into NATO and for the military alliance to return to pre-, when several countries from the former communist bloc began to join the organization.
