Emmanuel Macron Challenges Putin on Syria and Gay Rights
By ALISSA J. RUBIN and AURELIEN BREEDENMAY 29, 2017
VERSAILLES, France — France’s newly elected president, Emmanuel Macron, came out of his first meeting with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia on Monday with a message of stark challenge, promising French military reprisals for any use of chemical weapons by Russia’s allies in Syria
and saying he would closely monitor the curtailing of civil rights for gay people in Chechnya.
Mr. Macron made a point of opening the news conference by summarizing the long cultural ties between the two countries in literature, culture and philosophy and by noting
that "no essential issue can be handled today without talking with Russia." The meeting was Mr. Macron’s first with the Russian leader, and he appeared intent on introducing himself as a new factor for Russia to take into consideration on the European stage.
However, Mr. Macron minced no words when it came to responding to a question about why his
campaign had shut out two Russian-associated news organizations, Russia Today and Sputnik.
Mr. Macron said that he had discussed the reports of collective punishment of gay men in Chechnya with Mr. Putin and
that they had agreed on a "very regular monitoring" of the situation.
With Mr. Putin standing beside him, he accused two news organizations with ties to Russia
of acting as "organs of influence" rather than as true outlets for journalism.
The exhibition celebrates the ties between Russia and France forged 300 years ago by Peter the
Great when he visited France after encouraging diplomatic ties between the two countries.
