Stop calling Putin! Macron appears to be rebuked by Estonian PM

Putin’s state media blames Western nazism for Ukraine war

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In a comment thought to be addressed to the French President, Jaka Kallas vowed: “Don’t call him.” Otherwise, she claimed, Putin won’t feel “he’s isolated”.

Speaking at an international security conference earlier this week, Ms Kallas said: “I feel that if everybody is constantly calling him, he doesn’t get the message that he’s isolated.

“So if we want to get the message through that actually ‘you are isolated’ don’t call him. There’s no point.”

Suggesting there shouldn’t be any communication at all between the West and Putin, she added: “To me, it’s the question: why talk to him? He’s a war criminal.”

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As French journalist and Liberation columnist Jean Quatremer observed, her words may be directed at Mr Macron, whose dialogues with Putin have been more frequent than those of any other leader.

Their latest conversation was on May 3, three days after Mr Macron last spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

It saw the Russian President tell his French counterpart the West could help end “war crimes (and) massive shelling of towns and settlements in Donbas”, which are leading to civilian casualties.

RIA news agency cited the Kremlin as saying: “The West could help put an end to these atrocities by exerting appropriate influence on the Kyiv authorities and by halting arms deliveries to Ukraine.”

Paris, in a description of the virtual meeting, quoted Mr Macron as saying: “I have called on Russia to live up to its international responsibility as a UN Security Council member by putting an end to this devastating attack.”

But Mr Zelensky did not see things the same way.

After the call, he blamed Mr Macron for trying “in vain” to have a constructive dialogue with Putin.

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Mr Zelensky told the Italian TV channel Rai 1: “We must not look for a way out for Russia, and Macron is doing it in vain.

“I know he wanted to get results from mediation between Russia and Ukraine, but he didn’t get any.”

The Elysée rejected Zelensky’s allegations, with an official saying: “The president of the Republic has never discussed anything with Vladimir Putin without the agreement of President Zelensky and has never asked President Zelensky for any concession.

“He has always said that it was up to the Ukrainians to decide the terms of their negotiations with the Russians.”

In a speech at the closing ceremony of the Conference on the Future of Europe on May 9, Mr Macron urged Europe to “never give in to the temptation of humiliation, nor the spirit of revenge” in the context of Russia’s war on Ukraine.

The French president also said “when peace returns to European soil, we will need to build new security balances” – a claim understood to signal he is still seeking to reach a compromise with Putin.

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