Emmanuel Macron believes that Vladimir Putin “maintains a discourse of fear”, but that we “must not let ourselves be intimidated” by the Russian president, in an interview given to Le Parisien on Sunday. The head of state, accused of being a warmaker by Moscow, has become the bane of Russian propaganda since he mentioned the possible sending of Western soldiers to Ukraine in the name of “strategic ambiguity”.
In this interview, the French president reaffirms that ground operations in Ukraine by the West may be necessary in the future. “Perhaps at some point – I don’t want it, I won’t take the initiative – it will be necessary to have operations on the ground, whatever they may be, to counter the Russian forces,” he said. he declared in this interview conducted on Friday, upon his return from Berlin where he met the German and Polish leaders. “The strength of France is that we can do it,” he added.
Vladimir Putin is heading towards a new coronation, assured of winning an additional six-year mandate during an unopposed presidential election which takes place from Friday to Sunday. But for the French president, Russia is not “a great power”. “Russia is a medium power with nuclear weapons, but whose GDP is much lower than that of Europeans, lower than that of Germany and France,” he attacks.
The tenant of the Élysée announced his intention not to congratulate his Russian counterpart on Sunday in the event of new electoral success. “The death of Alexeï Navalny and the banning of all his opponents mean that we cannot congratulate someone on an election bordered by the death of those who fought for pluralism in Russia,” scathing- he said in the daily columns.
Emmanuel Macron also returned to the last weeks of strong tensions with Germany over the strategy to adopt against Moscow. On Friday, the French president and Olaf Scholz showed their “unity” on aid to Ukraine. To explain these differences, the head of state believes that Germany has “a strategic culture of great caution, of non-intervention” and that it “keeps its distance from nuclear power”, unlike France.
But the president rules out any disagreement within the Franco-German couple. “I wanted to come to Germany very quickly so as not to create a debate on strategic differences that might exist: they do not exist,” he explains. There has never been any disagreement between the chancellor and me. We have a very large commonality of views on the objectives and the situation. It’s the way of translating them that is different. Germany spends more than France, has more budgetary space, which is fortunate. France can do things that Germany cannot.”