Vlad and France...

Vladimir Putin and France unfriend each other

Marine Le Pen blasts President Hollande’s ‘bellicose’ approach to Russia.

By  Nicholas Vinocur

The new Cold War is getting chilly again.

Russian President Vladimir Putin called off a trip to Paris due to take place next week, sparking a diplomatic spat with France that followed other flare-ups between Moscow and Western powers. The temperature of the relationship is heading back toward lows last reached when Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula in early 2014.

Putin was due to make a private trip to Paris on October 19. Moscow put it on ice indefinitely Tuesday after French President François Hollande said that he would only discuss Syria during the visit, and would not accompany Putin to mark the inauguration of a new Russian Orthodox cathedral or visit a Russian art exhibit.

The late cancellation underscored a recent deterioration of the Kremlin’s ties with the West amid acrimony over the bombing of Aleppo, Moscow’s veto of a French peace initiative at the United Nations and Putin’s scrapping of a nuclear non-proliferation deal between Russia and the United States.

“With Russia, France has a major disagreement on Syria,” Hollande told his EU counterparts during a Council of Europe meeting Tuesday. “The Russian veto to the French security resolution prevented putting a stop to the bombing and the declaration of a ceasefire.”

Reverse thaw

Six months ago, French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault invited Putin to Paris during a trip to Moscow. The visit, during which Putin was to inaugurate the Orthodox cathedral, was designed to showcase warmer Franco-Russian ties at a time when many French politicians were pressing the European Union to lift Ukraine-linked sanctions on Moscow.

The trip became mired in controversy as French officials declined to confirm a date for several months. Only in early October was Putin’s arrival date confirmed — by sources close to the Russian foreign ministry and not by the host nation, as is normally the practice for state visits.

In the interim, relations between Russia and the West took a turn for the worse.

Western leaders expressed dismay over intense aerial bombardment of Aleppo by Syrian and Russian warplanes, with some officials calling the raids a “war crime.”

Putin scrapped a non-proliferation agreement with the United States, issuing a series of ultimatums and calling for the suspension of sanctions over Ukraine and the end of “unfriendly activities by the United States.”

Then Moscow vetoed a French initiative to halt bombing in Aleppo and start a ceasefire, drawing condemnation from Western powers including the United States, whose ambassador to the U.N. said Russia was “intent on allowing the killing to continue and, indeed, carrying it out.”

In his remarks Tuesday, Hollande also implied Moscow was to blame for the lack of progress in resolving the civic conflict in eastern Ukraine between Russian separatists and Ukrainian forces. “I will say it clearly: Progress (on Ukraine) is too slow and we must move forward on the political and security conditions that will allow us to hold, as soon as possible, and as the Minsk accords foresee, elections in eastern Ukraine according to Ukrainian law and international criteria,” he said.

Asked about Putin’s visit specifically, the French president added: “I conceived of the visit only if it allowed us to discuss Syria and only Syria. I also informed President Putin that if he was to come to Paris, I would not be accompanying him to ceremonies, but I was ready to pursue the dialogue on Syria.

“He preferred to put off the [visit], which will not prevent us from having other chances to talk. But he will not be coming to Paris.”

A spokesman for Putin said the Russian president was ready to visit Paris “at whatever time is comfortable for President Hollande.”

Putin and France

Marine Le Pen, president of France’s far-right National Front party, slammed Hollande’s attitude as a break in France’s diplomatic tradition and an example of “bellicose” rhetoric.

The move “seems to me to be a total break in French diplomacy, in the role that should be France’s,” she told journalists in Paris after a party meeting on animal rights. “I can clearly see a drift on François Hollande’s part toward extremely bellicose comments toward the heads of some nations … today his behavior toward Putin.”

Her swift reaction showed how divisive an issue Russia has become in France’s presidential campaign. While Le Pen is a consistent advocate for Putin and even Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in France, many conservative candidates have moved closer to her call for closer ties with Moscow, including former president Nicolas Sarkozy.

On the other side of the divide is conservative frontrunner Alain Juppé, who has expressed “shock” over the Aleppo bombing and called for dialogue with Putin; and Hollande’s government, which took a tougher line.

Le Pen, whose party accepted a €9 million loan from a Russian-backed bank in 2014, is one of Vladimir Putin’s most vocal defenders in Europe. She has repeatedly called for the European Union to lift Ukraine-linked sanctions against Russia while voicing support for Russian ally, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.