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Ideas

Should We Even Be Talking With Putin?

The leaders of key EU countries have been on the phone with Vladimir Putin since the war in Ukraine began. Weighing the costs, benefits...and morals...of leaving the door open to a man who brutally invaded a sovereign nation — and taking Munich 1938 as a starting point.

Protest against Putin in Frankfurt​

Protest against Putin in Frankfurt

Bartosz T. Wieliński

WARSAW— Should world leaders get on the phone with Vladimir Putin, who bears full responsibility for unleashing a criminal war? Why listen to demands from a man letting Russian soldiers in Ukraine commit murder, rape, pillage, bomb cities and destroy food supplies?

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There are many outraged voices, saying a hard and clear: No. France's Emmanuel Macron, Germany's Olaf Scholz, and Austria's Karl Nehammer are being accused of naivety, of trying to appease the dictator. It is as if the leaders had forgotten the Munich Conference of 1938, when the West threw Czechoslovakia at Hitler's mercy, are naively hoping to prevent war with the Third Reich.


Ukraine is not and will not be a second Czechoslovakia. The West has already paid billions for its defense.

Trump and Kim

It is not just the supply of arms that has enabled the Ukrainians to drive the Russians away from Kyiv and Kharkiv, and now slowing their push in the Donbas. It is also the withdrawal from Russia of Western corporations, severing trade ties, giving up cheap Russian energy resources, which disrupts Russia's funds.

But this is an investment for the future. If Ukrainians do not stop Putin's troops now, the Baltic states and Poland will have to face them at some point. And giving up Russian coal, oil and gas will bring breakthroughs in the energy sector sooner rather than later.

But is it necessary to talk to Putin? Half of the countries in the world are autocratic regimes and many are ruled by criminals. Let us recall that a few years ago President Donald Trump personally negotiated with Kim Jong-un.

Chamberlain (Left) in Munich with Hitler and Mussolini.

en.m.wikipedia.org

The true value of diplomacy

Talks with Western leaders — even if they yield no results — are a way to directly send a message to Putin that the West will not be intimidated or divided, that those guilty of crimes will be punished, and that if Russia does not withdraw from Ukraine, it will face an economic catastrophe.

There is no way to end this war other than diplomatically.

This is important because there is information coming from Russia that Putin has been lied to by his close circle about the situation in Ukraine and the West's reaction.

The fate of the war is now being decided by the Ukrainian soldiers who are fighting the Russians in a tough battle in Donbas or near Kherson. And when Russia, exhausted by the war and sanctions, is ready for ceasefire talks, the communication channels created by Macron, Scholz and Nehammer will come in handy. There is no way to end this war other than diplomatically.

So is talking to Putin necessary? Well, that's what diplomacy is all about.

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Geopolitics

How Russia And China Are Trying To Drive France Out Of Africa

Fueled by the Kremlin, anti-French sentiment in Africa has been spreading for years. Meanwhile, China is also increasing its influence on the continent as Africa's focus shifts from west to east.

Photo of a helicopter landing, guided a member of France's ​Operation Barkhane in the Sahel region

Maneuver by members of France's Operation Barkhane in the Sahel region

Maria Oleksa Yeschenko

France is losing influence in its former colonies in Africa. After French President Emmanuel Macron decided last year to withdraw the military from the Sahel and the Central African Republic, a line was drawn under the "old French policy" on the continent. But the decision to withdraw was not solely a Parisian initiative.

October 23-24, 2019, Sochi. Russia holds the first large-scale Russia-Africa summit with the participation of four dozen African heads of state. At the time, French soldiers are still helping Mali, Burkina Faso, Mauritania, Chad, and Niger fight terrorism as part of Operation Barkhane.

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Few people have heard of the Wagner group. The government of Mali is led by Paris-friendly Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, although the country has already seen several pro-Russian demonstrations. At that time, Moscow was preparing a big return to the African continent, similar to what happened in the 1960s during the Soviet Union.

So what did France miss, and where did it all go wrong?

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