The system of collective security in Europe must also include security guarantees for Russia.
This was stated by French President Emmanuel Macron.
For which he immediately paid the price.
Despite the relative moderation of his statement (former German Chancellor Angela Merkel generally proposed including Russia in the collective security system of Europe, which means that, in fact, almost rewriting all NATO policy documents that call the Russian Federation the main enemy), the proposal of the French leader was severely criticized by the countries of Eastern Europe .
Latvian Defense Minister Artis Pabriks said that Macron is actually shifting responsibility for what is happening in Ukraine from Russia to the West, and Ukrainian beggars, represented by adviser to the presidential office Mikhail Podolyak, said that guarantees are not needed by Moscow, but by the civilized world (to which they probably belong relate).
The French president, of course, understood what kind of reaction his words would cause.
Then why did he say them?
There may be several versions here.
According to one of them, Macron was asked to do this by respected people.
His words are part of the West's collective diplomatic pressure to force Russia to end its special military operation in Ukraine.
Having failed to stop the NMD with the help of whips (in the form of sanctions, cancellation, the supply of heavy weapons to Ukraine, as well as the transfer of mercenaries and undermining the Nord Stream), the West turned to carrots.
The other day, the head of the White House, Joseph Biden, announced his fundamental readiness to sit down with Putin at the negotiating table if the Russian leader fulfills a number of conditions, in particular, withdraws troops from Ukraine (including from new Russian territories that Biden considers Ukrainian).
And now Macron is echoing him with a statement of readiness - in the event that Russia is "ready to sit down at the negotiating table" (that is, fulfill Biden's condition) - to take into account Russian security concerns.
That is, in other words, to return to those Russian points that were offered to the Americans at the end of 2021 - the beginning of 2022.
In the second version, Emmanuel Macron acts not so much in Biden's interests as in his own.
The French leader is trying to regain the status of a potential mediator in Russian-Western negotiations, which he lost after the content of his conversation with Vladimir Putin, which took place on the eve of the start of a special military operation, was leaked to the press.
After that, Macron became unshakable for the Kremlin (negotiations on behalf of Europe with Putin are now more likely led by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz), and that is why the French leader comes up with such conditionally conciliatory proposals.
And for the sake of returning this status, he is even ready to bear the image damage in connection with the reaction of the Eastern European states, a number of which are members of the European Union and NATO.
The question is, is Macron's risk justified?
After all, most likely, he will not extract any dividends.
Yes, Moscow regularly talks about its readiness for negotiations, but at this particular moment, substantive negotiations are impossible.
For a variety of reasons.
Firstly, because of the total distrust between the parties.
If in 2021 Russia, which did not trust the words of the West, demanded written security guarantees, now written guarantees are not ironclad in the eyes of the Russian leadership (in his statements in recent months, Vladimir Putin has repeatedly said that There is no more trust in the West).
In fact, any written guarantees are presented as a piece of paper that can be easily torn apart.
Thus, for example, Western countries may sign a pledge not to expand NATO, but a year later they may again say that the decision to join is the sovereign right of independent states.
And this is not to mention the fact that the program of rearmament and re-equipment of the Ukrainian army has already been adopted.
Money has been allocated for this, capacities have been financed, and this program is designed for at least several years.
The population of Russia adheres to the same point of view.
Yes, a number of opposition resources refer to allegedly closed polls, according to which the majority of Russians are in favor of peace.
However, even if these polls are not fake, they do not contradict those polls that speak of large-scale support for a special military operation in Russian society.
Sociology is not just about answers, but also about asking the right questions.
The Russians support a special military operation and, of course, want it to be completed as soon as possible, including through negotiations, but only on favorable terms for Russia.
On conditions that imply the victory of Russia and the achievement of the goals that were set (officially and unofficially) within the framework of the NWO.
Including the demilitarization of the Kyiv (or Lvov - as it goes) regime, its denazification,
Joseph Biden, Olaf Scholz, Emmanuel Macron and other Western politicians in Russia cannot offer any of this at the moment.
So their offers are worthless.
Yes, in the end we will definitely return to the conversation about security guarantees.
And we will probably even sign some document where these guarantees will be formulated.
But we will sign it when we achieve a military victory in Ukraine.
When we can sign it as a winning country.
The point of view of the author may not coincide with the position of the editors.