Giuliano da Empoli's novel The Wizard of the Kremlin has become a bestseller in France since its publication shortly after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but some critics are concerned that its broadly sympathic portrayal of Vladimir Putin may influence French policy towards the ongoing war.
Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy received 300,000 euros during a period in which he attended a 2018 gathering in Moscow that was organised by the Russian state's main sovereign wealth fund, and at which he praised his “friend” Vladimir Putin. The money was paid by a company which bears the same name as a subsidiary of that sovereign fund. Fabrice Arfi and Yann Philippin report.
Russia's forein minister Sergey Lavrov and Kremlin spokeswoman Maria Zakharova have strongly criticised French President Emmanuel Macron for allowing a documentary on France's public TV channel France 2 to broadcast extracts of his conversations on Ukraine with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.
Exiled Russian oligarch Sergei Pugachev, who became dubbed “the Kremlin’s banker”, was once part of Vladimir Putin’s inner circle, until he was eventually cast out by the Russian president and took refuge abroad. In this interview with Mediapart, he details how Putin and his close allies, what he calls “a junta which has captured power, all the money and all the institutions of the state”, function. He denounces a system of corruption on a vast scale, including that of foreign politicians, argues why the decision to wage war on Ukraine marks “the end of Putin’s Russia”, and describes French President Emmanuel Macron’s frequent calls to Putin as “ridiculous”.
The French presidential office, the Élysée Palace, has said that during a conference call on Saturday between Russian President Vladimir Putin, France's president Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Putin showed no willingness to end the war with Ukraine.
Macron found Putin "very determined to achieve his objectives", including on "what the Russian president calls the 'de-Nazification' and the 'neutralisation' of Ukraine", said Élysée official.
The leaders spoke for 90 minutes, with Mr Putin telling Mr Macron that the war in Ukraine was "going according to plan" - to which the French president responded Russian leader was "lying" to himself.
In latest phone call between the two leaders, Kremlin says Russian leader demanded recognition of Crimea annexation, ‘denazification’ of Ukraine as prerequisites to end invasion.
For a long time the French president placed great emphasis on his “privileged relationship” with his Russian counterpart to obtain diplomatic advances, sometimes without even consulting his European partners. But when Emmanuel Macron met Vladimir Putin in Moscow in early February to discuss the situation in Ukraine everything had changed ... starting with the Kremlin chief himself. Ellen Salvi reports.
The French presidential office said late Sunday that Emmanuel Macron held two phone calls with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin during which the latter agreed 'in principle' to a summit with US President Joe Biden over tensions in Ukraine.
Before his meeting in Moscow with President Vladimir Putin on Monday, Emmanuel Macron refused to submit to a Russian PCR test for Covid over fears that his DNA could be extracted, sources close to the French president told news agency Reuters.
A Kremlin spokesman has described as 'simply impossible' that any deal was agreed between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron during their talks in Moscow on Monday over the Ukraine crisis, tempering upbeat comments by Macron as he visited Kyiv on Tuesday before travelling on to Berlin.
After a five-hour meeting in the Kremlin between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron, held in an attempt to defuse the crisis over fears of an imminent Russian invasion of Ukraine, Putin said Macron's proposals were a possible 'basis for further steps' adding that Russia 'will do everything to find compromises that suit everyone'.
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