Macron thought Putin was "stiffer and more "isolated" during recent Moscow meeting
French President Emmanuel Macron recently offered rare insight into the demeanor of his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, who he said had “changed” in the two years since the leaders previously met in person, according to an Elysée source.
Addressing journalists in Paris Monday following a televised national address by the Russian President, the source recounted what Macron had noticed during the leaders’ February 7 meeting in Moscow.
Macron had told reporters on the plane back from the trip that he found Putin to be “stiffer and more isolated” when they met face to face in the Russian capital, the source said, adding that the assessment aligned with the impression Putin gave in the rambling speech announcing the deployment of so-called “peacekeeping” troops into eastern Ukraine.
“On the plane, President Macron had explained to the journalists present that the Putin he had met in the Kremlin was no longer the same as the one he had seen in December 2019 -- their last meeting.
"That Macron had found at the Kremlin a man who was at the same time stiffer, more isolated and who, basically, had gone into a sort of drift that was both ideological and security-minded and who, in a certain way, was borne out today [in the speech],” the source said.
Macron has emerged as Europe's key broker in diplomatic efforts to avert war in Ukraine in recent weeks. The pair spent more than five hours locked in head-to-head talks during their meeting in Moscow this month.
Macron said at the time that he and Putin were able to find "points of convergence" over the crisis and that it was "up to us to agree, jointly, concrete and specific measures to stabilize the situation and to de-escalate tensions."
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