France’s Macron is a key enabler of NATO’s anti-Russian provocations
RT
...Macron should have known better than to follow along with Washington’s dangerous game. He had every opportunity to adopt an independent stance amid Washington’s arming, training, and supporting of Ukraine and its brazenly anti-Russian stance that had already resulted in sanctioning the Russian-German Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline construction to the detriment of 40% of Europe’s gas supply.
As holder of the six-month rotating Council of Europe presidency, Macron sat on his hands and zipped his mouth as the EU attempted to crush Russia with sanctions, blocked Moscow’s foreign reserves, and cut it off from the global banking system. He then stood idly by while the EU quashed media outside of the heavily state-subsidized or corporate-consolidated press, thereby reducing the chance that light would be shined on the potential nefarious consequences for the French people of such actions.
Now, with Russia asking Europe to pay for gas in rubles in the wake of the financial difficulties imposed on it by the West, Macron has decided to react. He told Russian President Vladimir Putin in a phone call this week “that it was not possible for Western gas clients to pay their bills in roubles,” according to Reuters.
With Russian gas used in France for everything from industrial production to car fuel, Macron is now in a race against time. Will the French people re-elect him in April before or after they realize how badly Macron’s failure to stand up to America has effectively sanctioned French citizens? Earlier this week, Macron announced a proposal for “food vouchers to help the most modest households and the middle class families to cope with the additional costs” due to sanctions and war-related inflation of food and gas costs.
What’s next? Bread lines and rationing? These sanctions clearly don’t benefit the French people, so why did Macron not dial down the belligerence by standing up to Washington when it was cheerleading Ukrainians as proxies for its anti-Russian belligerence? He should have known from the submarine deal screw-over that Washington is always looking out for itself, even if it’s to the detriment of Europe.
It’s still not too late for Macron to make his mark on history in the way that de Gaulle did. He could publicly call on the EU to drop all Russian sanctions in light of the harm they are causing his own citizens and industry, and push Ukraine and Russia together to work out their issues while refusing to support or encourage any further NATO belligerence or interference. Doing so would represent a truly courageous and independent stance by Macron in favor of peace, French leadership, and European independence at a time when the world needs it most.
French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire and German Economy Minister Robert Habeck said on Thursday that their countries won’t buy Russian gas with rubles, insisting that gas contracts in euro “must be observed.” Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin told Berlin that payments in the EU's joint currency would be converted to rubles upon arrival in Russia.
Speaking at a press conference in Berlin, Habeck said that the bloc would not be “blackmailed” by Russia into using rubles to buy gas. Putin has demanded that, as of Friday, “unfriendly” countries – those who “illegally” sanctioned Russia’s central bank in response to the conflict in Ukraine – will have to pay for Russian gas in Moscow's currency or have their supply cut off.
However, Habeck told reporters that existing gas contracts between European nations and Russia, which were negotiated in euro, “must be observed.” Habeck reiterated an earlier statement from the Group of Seven major economies, which read, “We will under no circumstances accept paying for gas deliveries in a currency other than the contractually agreed currency.”
Putin spoke by phone with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanel Macron on Wednesday, and outlined a system whereby both countries would continue to pay in euros, which would then be converted to rubles by Russia’s Gazprombank – which has not been sanctioned by the EU – upon receipt. “Scholz did not agree to this procedure in the conversation, but asked for written information to better understand the procedure,” a German official said, while a French official said, “France is against paying in rubles.”
It is unclear whether Habeck and Le Maire’s insistence that the original contracts in euros be honored extends to an outright rejection of the euros-to-rubles deal proposed by Putin on Wednesday. As Putin’s deal would involve interacting with Russia’s central bank, European leaders have been reluctant to agree.
