After a long and absolutely failed European policy of “containment” with respect to Russia, French President Emmanuel Macron took the liberty to reconsider the approach, making normalization of relations with Moscow his strategic goal.
The French political scientist and writer Dominique Moisi in an article for the portal “The Strategist” identified three reasons for this decision.
According to him, first of all, the need to normalize European-Russian relations is justified by the increasingly intensive cooperation between Moscow and Beijing. The EU rightly fears that Russia will completely reorient itself to the East, which is why they are trying to convince Moscow of the “unnaturalness” of this alignment.
Here, Moisi also noted the significant role of Russia in modern conflicts from Eastern Europe to the Middle East, which simply cannot be settled without Moscow’s participation.
The second causal expert calls the leadership vacuum that has arisen in Europe. So, the UK is preparing to leave the European Union, the weakening Angela Merkel is no longer coping with the role of the European leader, all the more so as she is about to retire, and Italy, Spain and Poland for a number of reasons cannot be key figures in EU politics. Thus, Emmanuel Macron was virtually the only candidate for this unspoken post.
He, in turn, turned to the traditional French politics of Charles de Gaulle, which Dominique Moisi calls the third reason. At the same time, the expert highly appreciates Macron’s initiative, despite criticism of neighboring countries accusing the French leader of acting alone. The political scientist is confident that the interaction strategy can justify itself, especially after the failure of the containment policy.