A French expert and philosopher has warned of the dangers of what they call a "new security architecture" in Europe, whose idea dates back to the Soviet era, and Russian President Vladimir Putin is seeking to impose it on Europe.

In a joint opinion piece in Le Monde newspaper, political expert Bruno Tertre and philosopher Michel Elchaninov explained Putin's diplomacy, saying that during his meeting with Putin on August 19, French President Emmanuel Macron bet on a return to Russian-European rapprochement. The importance of this bet after the presidential speech delivered at the ambassadors' conference a week after his meeting with Putin.

In 2018, Macron announced his intention to change his attitude towards Russia to make progress on European-Russian relations, denouncing what he called the "mistakes and misunderstandings" that have marred these relations since the end of the Cold War, pointing to the urgent need to "think again about the security architecture of the continent." In addition, he expressed his intention to offer a "strategic partnership" with Russia.

Idea from the fifties
They pointed out that this idea was echoed during the old Soviet request to propose a conference on European security in the 1950s, such as the Bucharest Declaration of 1966 and the Budapest Call of 1969, which was referred to by former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in 2008.

They said the Russian proposals were vague, such as "not securing oneself at the expense of others", "not allowing alliances to undermine European space unity" or "not developing military alliances that threaten other countries", but it was obviously about giving Moscow a right. Monitoring Western decisions.

Invoking a German old man
Putin cited a "clever German deficit" he spoke about during an interview with Bild newspaper, Egon Barr, one of the symbols of the SPD during the time of former German Chancellor Willy Brandt (1969-1974).

Gorbachev waged his last battle, a convergence project dubbed the "European common house" (Reuters)

Barr was one of the most important inspirers of the idea of ​​establishing a policy in West Germany at the time that brought it closer to the former GDR and the Soviet Union. He considered the unification of Europe as a secondary matter compared to the unification of the West and East Germans. Moscow 1970, a bilateral agreement that would abandon the logic of power in bilateral dealings, the authors say.

Save his system
This confirms the extent to which Putin was influenced by Barr, especially since they had met in Dresden when Putin was a KGB officer between 1985 and 1990.In his interviews, Putin continued to focus in his interviews on the assertion that Barr was emphasizing the need to establish a union. New Central Europe away from NATO, Barr considered that this alliance, as an organization and military body does not have the right to intervene in Central Europe, calling for the establishment of a new entity unites all of Europe.

Putin also said Barr had called, after the fall of the Berlin Wall, that NATO had no right to expand its base in eastern Europe.

The last secretary-general of the Soviet Communist Party, Mikhail Gorbachev, waged his latest battle, a rapprochement project called the "Common European House," in which he proposed to European leaders a joint structure independent of the United States, combining the then socialist part with Western European countries. . Some European leaders, such as Francois Mitterrand, were favored by the project, but the idea coincided with the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Russian vision
Whatever this Russian vision, they contradict French and European interests for several reasons. First, no one wants to adopt the 19th and 20th-century geopolitical approach, based on defining the spheres of influence in Europe, and that no one wants it except Moscow. Until the German-Soviet agreement was held in August 1939, when this secret agreement split Europe.

They say Macron sees Russia as geographically, historically and culturally close to Europe, but Russia does not. Putin has done everything to separate Russia from that history and make it the savior and preserve of Europe, pushing it toward the "right path" based on a return to Adopting "traditional values ​​and conservative politics", or adventurism by getting closer to Eurasian countries and Turks, and achieving a big anti-Western dream through an alliance with China.