French President Emmanuel Macron must draw the international community ‘clear red lines’ with Russia, including the imposition of sanctions on any ‘unacceptable behavior’ by Russian President Vladimir Putin. However, he said that sanctions alone are not sufficient.
In an interview with Margaret Brennan, moderator of “Face The Nation”, Macron said that he “fully” parted with the desire of Mr. Pray to open a dialogue with Russia. However he acknowledged that their numbers were not enough to defeat Putin’s government.
“This is the only way to be credible. I think sanctions in themselves are not sufficient, but sanctions are part of the package. I prefer constructive dialogue, but to have a constructive and effective dialogue, you have to credibility needed, ‘Macron said.
More than 30,000 Russian soldiers are gathered on the border with Ukraine, which raises concerns that Russia may invade. This is the highest number of Russian troops that have gathered at 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 had a “naive approach” to Russia.
“I think what happened a few years ago when Ukraine was invaded, it’s not a failure of diplomacy, it’s a failure of our collective credibility towards Russia,” Macron said, referring to the failure of the international community to enforce the Obama- The Biden administration’s “red line” on the use of chemical weapons by Syrian dictator Bashar al Assad in 2013. According to Macron, the lack of inaction Mr. Putin encouraged.
Months later, Russia annexed Crimea, a peninsula that extends to the Black Sea in 2014, away from Ukraine. The annexation was widely condemned by the international community, and the US sanctioned Russia in response.
On Thursday, Mr. Biden this week announced more sanctions against Russia in retaliation for espionage and political interference, citing SolarWinds cyber-hacking and Moscow’s interference in the 2020 US presidential election.
“We cannot allow a foreign power to interfere with our democratic process with impunity,” he said. Biden said Thursday in comments on the sanctions, though he added that “now is the time to escalate.”
According to a White House reading of their Tuesday call, President Biden also called on Vladimir Putin to ease tensions “around the Russian military build-up in” occupied Crimea and on Ukraine’s borders. “
The full interview with Macron will be broadcast on Sunday at 10:30 ET during “Face The Nation”.