Vladimir Putin is ready to resume talks with French President Emmanuel Macron, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told RIA Novosti. Earlier, on December 19, the French President said in Brussels that it would be “useful again” for Europeans to speak with Putin, rather than leaving talks with Moscow entirely to the United States.
“He [Macron] said he was ready to talk with Putin. It’s very important, probably, to recall what the president said during the Direct Line. He also expressed readiness to engage in dialogue with Macron. So if there is mutual political will, that can only be viewed positively,” Peskov said. He added that dialogue between the French and Russian leaders should be an attempt to understand each other’s positions, not a lecture.
The French president’s office welcomed the Kremlin’s statement and said the terms for the talks will be set in the coming days, Le Monde reported. At the same time, the Élysée Palace stressed that any talks with Moscow would be conducted with “full transparency”: all information will be available to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and European leaders. The goal of the talks is a “durable and long-term peace.”
On July 1, Macron and Putin spoke by phone after a three-year break. According to the Kremlin website, they discussed the situation in the Middle East, namely the Iran-Israel conflict and U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities. During their discussion of the war in Ukraine, Putin said the conflict was caused by Western policies that created an “anti-Russian bridgehead” in Ukraine.
