A penny for the thoughts of Vladimir Putin on Monday as he stared at Emmanuel Macron from the end of a very long table. If the Russian leader has a sense of irony he might have been struggling to suppress a smirk as he welcomed the President of France to Moscow to discuss the situation in Ukraine.
Macron was in his element as he played the international statesman representing the EU, but the President will be dismayed to learn that his grandstanding has not impressed the folks back home. Of the 140,000 who have so far responded to an online poll in Le Figaro, 60 per cent considered his visit to Moscow a failure.
It doesn’t appear to have yet dawned on Macron and many other western leaders that the days of dispensing lessons in democracy to despots are over.
Violence, fear and anxiety have been stalking France for seven years
In the French Republic, the land of liberty, equality and fraternity, millions of people are still unable to eat in a restaurant, go to the cinema or play for their sports team, all because they believe in bodily autonomy.
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