Valdai Club

The most important outcome of Trump’s visit to France is psychological. The prestige of Macron in the French public opinion increased tremendously. Macron received the President of Russia in the Castle of Versailles and then he receives the President of the USA for the National Day. People have the feeling France is coming back as an important country after the humiliations of the Holland presidency.  For Trump, it showed he was not so isolated after the Hamburg meeting.

The new president of France will follow the French national interests and in this connection he has to keep good working relations with Putin. We saw this already with Sarkozy and Hollande. Becoming presidents, they had to work quite well with Vladimir Putin.

The number of terrorist attacks is increasing. Terrorists are not completely alone and the idea of “lonely wolf” is very romantic but has little to do with the real life. A terrorist cannot survive if he is completely isolated. He must feel like "fish in the water".

The majority of experts think the situation in France is becoming very serious with in the worst case a sort of civil war between the ethnic communities. The political landscape will change.

Among Russia’s allies are leftists and rightists, but their position is due mainly to their reaction against Washington’s domination. With the exception perhaps of Poland and the Baltic countries, European politicians are not against Russia.

The crisis of the National Front is not only invoked by the expulsion of the aged Jean-Marie Le Pen, but also by the underground conflict between rightists-patriots of liberal Catholic color and FN rightists, indifferent to the Christian morals. French voters are traumatized by immigration and continue to vote for the National Front despite its internal divisions.

The anti-Russian sanctions, dangerous in terms of their purpose, absurd economically, dividing Europeans politically, legally are unfounded because they are against the international order and introduce an element of serious arbitrariness.

The results of local elections held in France on March 22 have shown that the electorate is turning away from leftwing values.

The Minsk agreement signed on February 12 stipulates a number of measures to promote peaceful settlement in Ukraine. It was signed by representatives of the OSCE, Russia and Ukraine, and the leaders of Lugansk and Donetsk republics in the Donbass region.