“Emmanuel Macron brings back the European voice”, according to researcher Tatiana Kastouéva-Jean

Emmanuel Macron made a diplomatic tour on Monday February 7 and Tuesday February 8, going to Moscow (Russia), Kiev (Ukraine) then Berlin (Germany) to discuss the crisis in Ukraine. “France has a particular responsibility at the moment so indeed, Emmanuel Macron brings back the European voice and in particular on one of the aspects which are the Minsk agreements. These are the agreements which were concluded in February 2015 to settle the situation east of Ukraine precisely. It is a piece of the puzzle from which the current confrontation, the accumulation of Russian troops on the border, started before Russia widened its demands to much broader subjects which generally concern European security and the European order as it was created after the fall of the USSR”explains Tatiana Kastouéva-Jean, researcher specializing in Russia at IFRI (French Institute for International Relations).

“We can clearly see that for several years, military force, the military threat has supported political demands and supported Russia’s new position on the international scene”, explains the researcher. Tatiana Kastouéva-Jean points out that in several conflicts, this military force “Turn things around and reposition Russia differently. We speak to it differently, that makes it an essential interlocutor on many issues”.