Macron wants “a well-organized European approach” for resuming the dialogue with Putin, but without “too many interlocutors” / What the Kremlin says

French President Emmanuel Macron said that he wants the resumption of the dialogue with Vladimir Putin to be “well organized” with the Europeans, but without “too many interlocutors”, emphasizing at the same time that the first “technical” contacts confirmed in particular that, for the moment, “Russia does not want peace”, reports the France Presse news agency on Tuesday, quoted by News.ro.

The French president had already announced in December that he wanted to resume direct talks with his Russian counterpart, largely interrupted because of the war in Ukraine, and at the beginning of February he sent his diplomatic adviser to Moscow to prepare them.

“What have we achieved? Confirmation that Russia does not want peace at this moment. But above all, we have rebuilt these discussion channels at a technical level,” he explained in an interview published on Tuesday by several European newspapers, including El Pais and Süddeutsche Zeitung.

“My desire is to share this with my European partners and have a well-organized European approach,” he added. According to the Elysee leader, the dialogue with Vladimir Putin must take place without “too many interlocutors, with a given mandate, a simple representation”.

Emmanuel Macron pleaded again not to “delegate” this dialogue to the United States, which resumed talks with Moscow after the return to power of Donald Trump a year ago.

“Our geography will not change. Whether we like it or not, Russia will always be there tomorrow. And it is at our gates,” he explained. The day Moscow and Kiev reach a peace agreement, “we will have to build a new security architecture in Europe with Russia,” he warned.

Kaja Kallas wants a list of demands for Russia

European Union countries must first agree on their expectations of Russia before talking to President Vladimir Putin, said the head of EU diplomacy, Kaja Kallas. “Let's discuss what we want to talk about with the Russians before deciding who will be the person who will talk to them,” she said in an interview with several media outlets, including AFP.

Kaja Kallas stated that he intends to send in the coming days to the 27 EU member states a list of “ideas” specifying the requirements that, in his opinion, should be imposed on Moscow. “If they formulate maximalist demands, we should also formulate maximalist demands”, she emphasized.

Russia declares itself ready for dialogue

“Russia has always been favorable to maintaining a dialogue that, in our opinion and conviction, could contribute to the solution of the most complex problems,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov reacted on Tuesday during the daily press conference, stressing that “a confrontation will not help to solve them.”

He confirmed that there had recently been “contacts” with France that could contribute to “establishing a dialogue at the highest level in a fairly operational way, if desired and if necessary”, without giving further details.

The Kremlin “seriously took into account Mr. Macron's statements regarding the need to establish relations with Russia, and these statements make us happy,” assured Peskov, considering that “reducing our relations to zero is illogical, counterproductive and harmful for all parties.”