The Kremlin declared that it does not expect great progress in the meeting that the Russian president will hold this Monday, Vladimir Putin, and its French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, because “the situation is too complex”.
(Read here: Ukrainians train for combat in Chernobyl ghost town)
“The situation is too complex to expect great progress in the course of a meeting,” Russian presidential spokesman Dmitri Peskov told his daily news conference.
(Also: Washington maintains that Russia is preparing a full invasion of Ukraine)
He added that Russia hopes that the consultations between the two leaders, which are scheduled to start at 2 pm local time, will be “substantive and prolonged.”
According to the spokesman, in the Russian-French talks “the issue of tension in Europe, linked to the situation around Ukraine, and the issue of security guarantees for the Russian Federation”.
Macron, Peskov stressed, is “the head of state presiding over the European Union and this is very important.”
The Kremlin spokesman added that the French president brings to Moscow “certain ideas for the search for possible variants to reduce tension in Europe.”
According to Paris, Macron’s visit to the Russian capital will not solve the conflict by itself, but it could be a good starting point to avoid the deterioration of the current situation, after the deployment of more than 100,000 Russian soldiers along the borders of Ukraine.
The head of the Kremlin and the French president have spoken on the phone three times in the last two weeks, both about the situation around Ukraine and about the security guarantees that Russia demands from the United States and NATO, including the Alliance’s renunciation of its open-door policy.
The French leader proposes a “new balance” to maintain peace and security on the continent, especially Russia’s neighbors, and also address the Kremlin’s concerns about NATO expansion.
The United States and the Atlantic Alliance flatly rejected Russia’s demands for security guarantees, which include a legally binding commitment that neither Ukraine nor any other former Soviet republic will ever be accepted into NATO.
Moscow had warned that it would adopt “political-military measures” if its concerns about NATO’s approach to its borders were not taken into account, but so far it has not ruled on the rejection of its demands.
At the end of their talks, Putin and Macron plan to offer a joint press conference.
European diplomacy is reactivated by Ukraine
The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, will receive this Tuesday the presidents of France, Emmanuel Macron, and of Poland, Andrzej Duda, to examine the situation created around Ukraine and the threat of aggression against that country by Russia.
The deputy spokesperson for the German Government, Christiane Hoffmann, specified that the meeting is part of the Weimar Triangle format, an initiative of Germany, France and Poland in which the three countries have been addressing cooperation issues since 1991.
Hoffmann recalled the “special responsibility” that the three countries assume in the crisis situation in relation to Ukraine given that Germany is the rotating president of the G7 in this first half of 2021, France assumes the rotating presidency of the EU and Poland that of the OSCE.
The meeting of the three leaders will take place after the meetings held on Monday by Scholz and Biden in the German chancellor’s first visit to Washington since his inauguration and the visit that the French president makes to Moscow this Monday, where he meets with the Russian president , Vladimir Putin. EFE
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