Fascinating Telephone Call Between Macron and Putin a Few Days Before the Invasion of Ukraine

14 comments

1. An 8-minute conversation where you can hear Putin reiterate some of Russia’s propaganda tropes.

   Seems to be very well handled by Macron. I think this is published in preparation of whatever the supposed announcement tomorrow by Macron is going to be.

   It’s also a pretty fascinating peek into the background diplomatic conversations.

2. Interesting that this released now, 2 years later.

3. I listened to the whole thing.

   Putin straight faced lied to Macron.

   Unashamedly.

4. No wonder Macron is pissed off at Putin. He straight up lied to him “The exercises will finish tonight probably. They are there in case further things develop”
   They were there to invade, all along.

5. I remember Putin and Russian media being very angry about this “leak” from Macron. At the time Macron and his team were well aware of the lies of Putin despite the world media mocking him for failing to negotiate with putin.

   France had however underestimated the level of readiness of Russian army which leads to the resignation of the former head of French intelligence.

   This call had also a major impact of the French election as most of the media were more focused on the war than on the internal french politic.

6. It was completely pointless. Putin had already prepared his invasion and lied, Macron was mocked. You have to remember that Putin knew every single second that he would invade within days.

   Putin was always interested in invading and he did not want any solution. Note that he did not use his troop deployment as a bargaining chip, he did not threaten invasion, he also did not call for third party mediation. The problem with the Minsk-treaty was always that all involved were parties or allies. Russia was the separatists, the Europeans were allies of Ukraine.

   Putin also skipped on this proposed summit with Biden. He prepared and intended war.

   A destructive opponent like Putin inverts all motivations, appeasement will not deescalate but encourage violence. The intercept would have been to deploy Western troops in Ukraine, 5k in each Kyiv, Dnipro, Zaporishia and Kherson would have stopped the invasion. Russia/Putin would have howled to no end, and of course there would never have been proof of this operation’s success, but it would have worked. The West lacked the resolve and the means to do it. Those NATO 2% and even 1.5% would have been enough to provide the means. But a lot of countries went well below that. Macron now seems to have found the resolve, more than 2 years late.

   A final note, there is not much danger of accidental war with a “cooperative opponent”, just look at the recent wars.

   WW1: All participants were willing to grab land by force. France wanted Alsace-Lorraine, Germany wanted colonies, Britain wanted to landbridge in Africa, Russia wanted ports, Austria wanted Serbia. Of course they did not intend it to be so destructive and take so long and the loosers did not intend to loose, but they wanted war.

   WW2: Japan and Germany wanted to grab land, lots of land.

   Korea: North Korea wanted to gobble up South Korea

   China/Tibet: China wanted to gobble up Tibet

   Iraq/Iran: Saddam Hussein wanted to grab land from Iran

   Iraq/Kuwait: Saddam Hussein wanted to gobble up Kuwait

   USA/Iraq: USA wanted to dispose of Saddam Hussein, an example that it can backfire sideways, Saddam Hussein was easily disposed, but Iraq turned out to be snake pit and the US stirred it up.

   I cannot remember a single war, in which both parties had no intention to go to war, but clashed accidentally.

7. Putin sounds like a old lost grandpa that is just saying stuff that has no base in reality

8. Macron: “so the military exercises will end tonight, right”   

   Putin: “yes, they will…probably…end tonight…well we’ll see…”  

    Later on:

    Macron : “so, we can have a meeting, today about the principal? I want a very clear answer from you 

   Vladimir” Putin: “well, let’s get my advisors to talk to your advisors…blah blah…but on the principal, I agree”  

   These are all absolutely see through avoidance tactics when someone is lying.  Prefacing the statement with a conditional, loopholes, “probably”, “likely”, “my advisors your advisors” etc

   And then, instead of the pressing importance of deescalating the critical situation:

   Putin “well, actually this afternoon I was going to play ice hockey…”

    … Putin what a little rat

9. The fact that Putin ended the call because he was at the gym and wanted to go to a hockey game… I feel like you would only mention this in a conversation between presidents if you wanted to tell the other side I do not take you seriously at all

10. It’s been well known that hours before the invasion Puthead stated to Macron on a direct phone call that there were no intentions to go on with a military action. Listening to it all and watching the video context of his collaborators add a concrete dimension to it.

    You need a firm voice against the weasel. Too bad Draghi is not in charge for Italy today, yet Meloni hasn’t been flinching a millimetre either.

11. Macron: So can we avoid war?
    Putin: Yeah, sorry bro Im lifting weights at the gym right now and want to play some hockey after that. Talk to you later!

12. “Hey, confirm that you want to talk to Biden, say that you want a two-person meeting!”

    “I wanted to go play ice hockey because right now I’m talking to you in the gym…I’m going to call my supervisors first”

    Putin already trashed the idea even before Macron put it on the table. You know he’s lying when he’s meek and evasive.

13. When fiction looks a bit like reality: https://youtu.be/fnd0qg4I_MM

14. This is incredible. I’ve always wondered what phone calls between leaders were like