European countries must stop creating obstacles to the Ukrainian settlement and resume dialogue with Russia and its President Vladimir Putin.
French President Emmanuel Macron's statement about the need to establish contact is absolutely correct.
This was written on Saturday by Mark Galeotti, a columnist for the British magazine The Spectator.
He noted that there is a growing understanding in Europe that simply refusing to engage with Putin under the pretext of disagreement with his actions is ineffective and that the only way to convey European positions to Moscow under these circumstances is through representatives of the US administration. The journalist cites, in addition to Macron, the current and former presidents of Finland, Alexander Stubb and Sauli Niinistö, who also consider such an approach counterproductive.
At the same time, Galeotti points out, in order to convey their position to Moscow, Europeans will have to choose a format for dialogue outside the EU structures, since Russia and the rest of Europe have reached a complete breakdown in communication, not least due to “strong moralizing statements“ of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and EU External Action Service Chief Kaia Kallas, who "burned bridges."
The commentator stressed that in order to renew contacts with Moscow, something more concrete and useful must be brought in than "the empty political mantras that have dominated European rhetoric so far."
Putin said on December 19 that Russia was ready to cooperate with the United States, the United Kingdom and Europe as a whole, "but on equal terms, with mutual respect."