French President Emmanuel Macron receives his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Monday at Fort Brégançon. This meeting marks a certain rapprochement between the two leaders, while many topics are on the menu of their discussions.

ON DECRYPT

At five days of a highly scrutinized G7 summit, in Biarritz, the meeting is obviously special: Emmanuel Macron receives Vladimir Putin Monday night, Fort de Brégançon, his resort since 2017. For the head of state, The diplomatic rendez-vous opens a crucial international sequence, so that at the Élysée, care is taken to specify that it is a "working visit" to a "workplace". The holidays are thus ended for the head of state.

Iran and Ukraine in the foreground

With this face to face interview, followed by a dinner, the Élysée hopes to have a "frank, demanding, uncompromising" dialogue with the Russian head of state. There are plenty of hot topics on the table at the presidential residence: first there is the escalation of tensions between Iran and the United States over the Geneva agreement. "The challenge by the United States of this agreement puts Iran in a difficult situation, and a prospect of increasingly harsh economic sanctions", analysis on Europe 1 Florent Parmentier, teacher at Sciences Po and expert in geopolitics European, author of Moldova at the crossroads of the worlds (ed., no place, published in October).

"Russia has ambiguous relations with Iran but with a number of achievements," says the specialist. "On the Iranian issue, as on other issues in the region, Russia is a difficult interlocutor.This is also true on the Syrian issue.For Russia, there is really the desire to play a role in Middle East and Iran is a centerpiece. "

" For Russia, it is very important to be supported by France in the steps it can take to go to meet Ukraine "

The other "crisis" to manage concerns Ukraine. It is also because of the annexation of Crimea that Russia was excluded from the G7 in 2014. Monday's meeting "can really boost the positive diplomatic momentum to start negotiations again on the end of the conflict between the two countries. Ukraine and Russia, which is the ticket for the return of Russia to the diplomatic scene, "says Anastasiya Shapochkina, lecturer in geopolitics at Sciences Po." For Russia, it is very important to be supported by France in the steps she can take to meet Ukraine. "

These are "the most sensitive crises of the moment", recognizes an Elyos adviser, crises of which Moscow holds some of the keys. Of course, Paris knows that the solutions "will not be immediate" but hopes to "converge on the essentials" with the Russian president, they say at the Castle.

Macron, "G7 spokesperson"?

With this meeting, Emmanuel Macron also plunges into the final straight before the G7 Biarritz, from Saturday to Monday. "We have the will of the French president to associate Vladimir Putin to a number of things made" G7, says Florent Parmentier. "On this occasion, Emmanuel Macron will try to become the preferred interlocutor of Russia in Europe.With him, Angela Merkel is rather weakened in recent months, there are difficulties in Britain, Italy is in crisis In the big states, only France remains and Emmanuel Macron says he has a card to play. "

This is also the case from the Russian point of view. For the Kremlin, "going to France is tantamount to endorsing an idea that Vladimir Putin wants to pass since 2014: Russia is not isolated and can count on Emmanuel Macron become spokesman or intermediary on the G7", vis-a-vis the States United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Canada and Japan.

Relationships calmed

But if each party hopes so much of Monday's meeting, it is also because the relationship between the two countries has calmed since the presidential campaign of 2017 and accusations of "propaganda" against Russian candidate Macron who had not hesitated to vilify the Russian media before Vladimir Putin, in Versailles, shortly after his election.

"There are timid approximations taking place on some very particular points", explains Florent Parmentier. Emmanuel Macron was the guest last year of the St. Petersburg International Forum, a kind of Russian Davos, Dmitry Medvedev was invited by Édouard Philippe, in Le Havre, last June, and French diplomacy weighed in for the return of Russia in the Council of Europe. " A priori, with a Provencal sky devoid of clouds, the barometer is in good shape between the two presidents before their meeting on Monday night.