Unexpected meeting

Putin and Hollande talked face to face for the first time since the start of the Ukrainian crisis

An unplanned meeting of France President Francois Hollande with his Russian colleague Vladimir Putin did not bring significant results in resolving the Ukrainian crisis, but the French media notes that Paris’s mediation can help in fulfilling the Minsk agreement in full.

The meeting was very good, writes the publication Le Figaro, so good that the two leaders spoke not an hour, as planned, but two, and then also drank coffee together. Putin led Hollande to his plane, there were smiles on the faces of both. This meeting was unexpected, given the significant cooling in the relations of Moscow and Paris against the backdrop of Ukrainian events and the refusal of France to put Russia within two helicopter carriers of the Mistral type, the newspaper notes and quotes the French president who noted that this meeting "occurred at the right time, in suitable circumstances and, undoubtedly with the expected results in the coming days."

Le Figaro notes the role that President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev played in the organization of these informal negotiations. Hollande landed in Moscow, returning after an official visit to Astana. The publication refers to a diplomatic source, according to which Putin is in search of a solution for the Ukrainian crisis, because Russia, like its partners and neighbors (for example, Kazakhstan) already feel the negative effect of international isolation. Talking with journalists in the cabin of his plane at the end of a meeting with Putin, the French president noted that "from the moment when the Minsk Protocol enters, we will begin to move to the exit from the crisis." On a special line, Olland was called by the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko, who wanted, in hot pursuit, to find out what was discussed at a meeting in Moscow, writes Le Figaro.

The Le Monde newspaper , not without irony, notes that the meeting of Putin and Hollande was distinguished by a special “chic”: the presidential board, returning from Kazakhstan, changed the route literally at the last moment, when it became clear that Putin had left for Vnukovo-2 to meet with a French colleague. After the unfriendly reception, which the Russian leader was awarded at the G20 summit in Brisben, this unexpected arrival of Olland was not ordinary banality for Putin, the publication notes.

Liberation writes that Putin and Hollande discussed mainly the Ukrainian crisis, affecting the topic of negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program. At the same time, the topic of the supply of Russia by helicopters was not affected by two politicians. The newspaper quotes Putin, who, at the end of the meeting with Hollande, noted that there was no question about “Mistali” and that Russia proceeds from the following principle: either the terms of the contract must be fulfilled or the money paid should be returned to Moscow.

Olland, apparently, is trying to do what his predecessor Nicolas Sarkozy did at one time

The publication notes that Holland's improvisation with a race to Moscow is an important signal for Russia. "Angel Merkel played the role of the main European ally of the Kremlin for a long time, but the German chancellor lost patience," and Francois Hollande, the first leader of the European Power, who paid a visit to Moscow since the beginning of the Ukrainian crisis, may well adopt the role of a "good policeman." Olland, apparently, is trying to do what his predecessor Nicolas Sarkozy was at one time, who presented his mediation in negotiations on peaceful settlement between Russia and Georgia in 2008, writes Liberation.

The French analogue of WikiLeaks, the online publication Mediapart notes : no need to overestimate the possibilities of Paris. Tomorrow, the EU and NATO allies in the EU and NATO will do everything to return it to the common row, and the initiators of this will undoubtedly be American diplomats and Angel Merkel. “It is possible that the first swallow of such criticism of Paris was Sundays of the German Chancellor on Die Welt's pages about the inability of France to carry out reforms,” the publication says.