The international community must draw “clear red lines” with Russia, French President Emmanuel Macron said, including the implementation of sanctions following any “unacceptable behavior” by Russian President Vladimir Putin. He said, however, that sanctions alone are not enough.
In an interview with “Face The Nation” moderator Margaret Brennan, Macron said he “fully” shares Biden’s desire to open a dialogue with Russia. Still, he said it was important to be clear with Putin “when we are not aligned.”
“This is the only way to be credible. I think sanctions are not enough in themselves, but sanctions are part of the package. I prefer constructive dialogue, but to have a constructive and efficient dialogue, you need credibility,” he said. Macron.
More than 30,000 Russian soldiers they pile up on the Ukrainian border, raising concerns that Russia may invade. This is the highest number of Russian troops gathered on the border since 2014. Macron agrees with President Biden’s view that this is an unacceptable level of tension.
“I think we need to define clear red lines with Russia” to be credible, Macron said. He acknowledged that the international community has taken what he called a “naive approach” to Russia.
“I think what happened a few years ago when Ukraine was invaded is not a failure of diplomacy, it is a failure of our collective credibility vis-à-vis Russia,” Macron said in reference to the failure of the international community in when to apply Obama. The Biden administration’s “red line” on the use of chemical weapons by Syrian dictator Bashar al Assad in 2013. This inaction, in Macron’s view, encouraged Mr Putin.
Months later, Russia annexed to the Crimea, a peninsula that comes out of the Black Sea, far from Ukraine, in 2014. The annexation was widely condemned by the international community and the US sanctioned Russia in response.
On Thursday, Mr Biden announced this week more sanctions against Russia in retaliation for espionage and political interference, citing both SolarWinds cyber hacking and Moscow’s interference in the 2020 US presidential election.
“We cannot allow a foreign power to interfere with impunity in our democratic process,” Biden said in statements announcing the sanctions on Thursday, although he added that “now is the time to de-escalate.”
According to a reading of his phone call Tuesday at the White House, President Biden also called on Vladimir Putin to “reduce tensions” surrounding Russian military buildup in “occupied Crimea and on Ukraine’s borders.”
The full interview with Macron will air during “Face The Nation” on Sunday at 10:30 am ET.