Reuters
In Moscow, Macron found a different, tougher Putin
Russian President Vladimir Putin spent much of his marathon talks with France’s Emmanuel Macron this week on the Ukraine crisis reciting grievances that date back to the end of the Cold War, two sources in the French leader’s entourage said. In the first detailed read-out on Monday’s meeting in Moscow from the French delegation, the sources said Macron had been struck by how different Putin was to the man he had met in his summer residence on the French Riviera three years ago. The French comments came as Russia, which has massed more than 100,000 troops near its borders with Ukraine, held military exercises https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/wrapup-1-russia-starts-belarus-military-drills -amid-new-diplomacy-ukraine-2022-02-10 in neighboring Belarus and the Black Sea and Western leaders renewed their warnings of a major conflict.