I despise Macron, and I fully believe his desire to intervene was born of egoism and self-interest.
But I still subscribe to your sentiments, because when it comes to averting a horrific war, I’ll take whatever peace initiative I can get, from whomever gives it.
James Joyce
2 years ago
“Two weeks ago, Macron decided he alone was capable of convincing the Russian president not to start a war on Ukraine.”
A bit hubristic, non?
No tears for Macron, who made himself look like the fool he is. No respect either! Desolee.
Stephen Walshe
2 years ago
It was a risible electoral stunt, for which Macron deserves no credit, and which will hopefully damage his re-election ambitions. France, like the UK, is of no significance to Russia, in contrast to Germany, China and the US. If their leaders were not willing to go to Moscow, Macron just made himself look like the mountebank he is by rushing in. The standing of the Presidential office should not be squandered uselessly. .
ralph bell
2 years ago
Your right, no leader in the West appears to have a clue what to do or what they should have already been doing way before this.
Good on Macron for his Diplomacy efforts, however futile they may now look.
Katharine Eyre
2 years ago
“The timing was designed to make Macron’s hasty boasts sound like a vanity project, achieving nothing but dividing the West”. That’s because they were. No sympathy for Macron here. It was pretty obvious to me from the outset that this was ego-fuelled freelancing which would do nothing other than highlight the division of the West at the worst possible time. Putin simply had to sit back and let Macron’s Siberia-sized ego work for him.
Terence Fitch
2 years ago
Plenty of Putin admirers on this site in the past few weeks. Agreeably for them their sons won’t end up in a burnt out APC in some anonymous field. Comforting.
Of course not! Is that a deliberate misread? The opposite. I’m not that old git of an armchair warrior like plenty on here purging their hatred of Western democracy with all its faults ( like debate and dissent?) by wanting us to ‘be strong’ in some way as they also admire by inference the brutal Putin. As I said, as long as they don’t end up actually suffering. Someone else can. They might get keyboarditis at the most.
We’re told Putin is mad and evil. The fact that he’s totally humiliated Macron makes me think Putin can’t be all that bad.
Forcing him to take a covid test and then subjecting him to the long table treatment when he refused……beautiful, poetic justice.
You really need to get some perspective. Disliking Macron ( are you a French voter?) is an absurdity in this situation. If you didn’t vote for him I don’t get your point. Under a Putin you’d be actually persecuted for disagreeing. Did anything about the brutality of the last Belarusian ‘election’ not register?
Olga Romanovna: founder of NGO Russia Behind Bars: It’s a mistake to assume that Navalny will serve only two years and eight months. He will be released much later than that, if at all. It depends entirely on the will of just one person: Vladimir Putin. There are all kinds of ways of keeping him in prison for as long as is considered necessary. Officially, of course the reasons will be ‘strictly legal’. Next year or the year after, Navalny’s prison term may be increased to ten years.
Michael Kellett
2 years ago
Perhaps if he’d kept Biden, Johnson et al in the loop from the outset, instead of when it was too late, he may have achieved a different result. I doubt it but I would have had more respect for him.
I despise Macron, and I fully believe his desire to intervene was born of egoism and self-interest.
But I still subscribe to your sentiments, because when it comes to averting a horrific war, I’ll take whatever peace initiative I can get, from whomever gives it.
“Two weeks ago, Macron decided he alone was capable of convincing the Russian president not to start a war on Ukraine.”
A bit hubristic, non?
No tears for Macron, who made himself look like the fool he is. No respect either! Desolee.
It was a risible electoral stunt, for which Macron deserves no credit, and which will hopefully damage his re-election ambitions. France, like the UK, is of no significance to Russia, in contrast to Germany, China and the US. If their leaders were not willing to go to Moscow, Macron just made himself look like the mountebank he is by rushing in. The standing of the Presidential office should not be squandered uselessly. .
Your right, no leader in the West appears to have a clue what to do or what they should have already been doing way before this.
Good on Macron for his Diplomacy efforts, however futile they may now look.
“The timing was designed to make Macron’s hasty boasts sound like a vanity project, achieving nothing but dividing the West”.
That’s because they were. No sympathy for Macron here. It was pretty obvious to me from the outset that this was ego-fuelled freelancing which would do nothing other than highlight the division of the West at the worst possible time. Putin simply had to sit back and let Macron’s Siberia-sized ego work for him.
Plenty of Putin admirers on this site in the past few weeks. Agreeably for them their sons won’t end up in a burnt out APC in some anonymous field. Comforting.
So I’m to assume you’re on the side pushing for war? The irony
Of course not! Is that a deliberate misread? The opposite. I’m not that old git of an armchair warrior like plenty on here purging their hatred of Western democracy with all its faults ( like debate and dissent?) by wanting us to ‘be strong’ in some way as they also admire by inference the brutal Putin. As I said, as long as they don’t end up actually suffering. Someone else can. They might get keyboarditis at the most.
I stand corrected!
*said the man in the orthopaedic shoes
Is it just me or does Macron have a stupid face?
Great argument. Putin looks like…oh come on.
We’re told Putin is mad and evil. The fact that he’s totally humiliated Macron makes me think Putin can’t be all that bad.
Forcing him to take a covid test and then subjecting him to the long table treatment when he refused……beautiful, poetic justice.
You really need to get some perspective. Disliking Macron ( are you a French voter?) is an absurdity in this situation. If you didn’t vote for him I don’t get your point. Under a Putin you’d be actually persecuted for disagreeing. Did anything about the brutality of the last Belarusian ‘election’ not register?
You can be persecuted in the West for holding the wrong opinions; is Russia that much worse?
Olga Romanovna: founder of NGO Russia Behind Bars: It’s a mistake to assume that Navalny will serve only two years and eight months. He will be released much later than that, if at all. It depends entirely on the will of just one person: Vladimir Putin. There are all kinds of ways of keeping him in prison for as long as is considered necessary. Officially, of course the reasons will be ‘strictly legal’. Next year or the year after, Navalny’s prison term may be increased to ten years.
Perhaps if he’d kept Biden, Johnson et al in the loop from the outset, instead of when it was too late, he may have achieved a different result. I doubt it but I would have had more respect for him.