“Political posture” - an analyst calls out Macron’s promises to Ukraine ahead of European elections

Although Macron has been an aggressive defender of the Kiev regime, his recent statements about sending Mirage 2000 warplanes to Ukraine may be nothing more than a political posturing ahead of European elections, leading EU policy analyst and co-editor of Le Monde Moderne magazine Alexis Poulin told Sputnik.

“He's been promising some planes for Ukrainian forces, but he wasn't able to tell the number of planes,” Poulin noted. Macron also failed to clarify whether France would send military trainers to assist the Kiev regime.

The timing of Macron’s comments ahead of the European Parliament elections seems conveniently designed to rally domestic support, positioning a vote for his party as a vote for European solidarity, the analyst said.

“And clearly, a lot was said mainly for a French audience because of the European elections that are taking place on Sunday. And Emmanuel Macron clearly wants to state that voting for his party is voting for Europe. And that is very important,” Poulin clarified.

“It's more, I think, a political posture than anything else,” Poulin argued.

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Radical center on way out as Europeans chafe over lack of “ideological flexibility”

Although figures like French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz have won plaudits from mainstream media and establishment interests, they are increasingly unpopular among the European public noted Dr. George Szamuely, a senior research fellow at London’s Global Policy Institute.

“They don't seem to have the ideological flexibility to realize how unpopular their policies are,” said the commentator on Sputnik’s The Final Countdown program. “So, they continue tanking in the polls, but they don't seem to make any adjustments.”

Szamuely specifically identified such politicians’ apparent support for “waging indefinite war in Ukraine,” which he pointed out was “clearly very unpopular in Europe.”

Massive farmers’ protests have been driven by a rejection of free-trade policies intended to boost Ukrainian agricultural imports. The Ukraine conflict more broadly is a matter of controversy for many Europeans, Szamuely noted, blaming “the kind of centrist liberalism which has been the dominant ideology over the past 10 years or so, as represented by seeing Macron in France and Olaf Scholz in Germany.”

“Macron has been historically unpopular now for several years,” he said of the French President, who has repeatedly heightened tensions with Russia over the conflict with Ukraine. “He still keeps talking about waging indefinite war in Ukraine. Now, this is clearly very unpopular in Europe, certainly unpopular in France and yet he continues doing this.” A recent poll by the French newspaper Le Figaro found that 68% of French people disagreed with comments by Macron about the possibility of sending Western troops to fight in Ukraine.

“Similarly in Germany, when you enter this traffic light coalition – which is gung ho for this war in Ukraine – even though the German public really doesn't want to do it,” he continued. “The German public has made it absolutely clear in poll after poll that they don't want to get sucked into another war in the East. And yet it continues.”

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Russia-Africa ties reemerge as world powers vie for influence

With Russia and the United States increasingly representing two distinct geopolitical poles, ties between Moscow and Africa are reemerging on the basis of voluntary partnership and respect for national sovereignty.

“It sounds to me like they're getting the band back together,” said Garland Nixon, cohost of Sputnik’s The Critical Hour program, noting Russian security agreements taking shape with Mali, Niger and the Central African Republic. “Russia's history and the Soviet Union's history during the Cold War in Africa is very rich, shall we say. As the US empire pushes a new Cold War narrative, it seems to me that this is the natural outcome of it.”

“There's obviously something to which you say,” responded author and researcher Dr. Gerald Horne, a professor of history at the University of Houston in Texas. Horne noted that many African countries face threats from jihadist movements funded by US Gulf allies. “Russia has to combat these same religious zealots oftentimes sponsored by US imperialism on their own soil. Not to mention in the vicinity – speaking of Syria, for example.”

Russian provision of financial aid and military support to anti-apartheid movements during the 20th century won the country goodwill throughout Africa, with many seeing Moscow as a benevolent counterweight to Western domination.

“South Africa faces a very difficult environment, not least because US imperialism is unhappy with South Africa, because it's bringing the case before the International Court of Justice against US ally Israel, because of South Africa's close alliance with Brazil, Russia, India, [and] China… the BRICS, for example,” said Horne.

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Putin to participate in plenary session at SPIEF

Russian President Vladimir Putin will take part in the plenary session of the 27th St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF).

During his speech, Putin is expected to outline a detailed assessment of Russia’s economic prospects, the Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

Bolivian President Luis Arce and Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa will be taking part in the plenary session alongside Mr. Putin.

👉 Stay tuned for the session’s live stream here or on our website at 11:00 GMT!

#SPIEF2024

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‘Be strong and ready to suffer’: Alexander Dugin offers advice to Western dissidents

“I was a Soviet dissident and I know how hard it is to fight against the dictatorship. But in order to kill the great dragon, you need to be very strong and ready to suffer. Because without suffering, you could not achieve the real goal,” he told Sputnik on the sidelines of SPIEF 2024.

At the concluding press conference of SPIEF-2024, Anton Kobyakov, Advisor to the President of the Russian Federation and responsible secretary of the organizing committee, stated:

America itself is stagnating and teetering on the brink of civil conflict. The collective West has entered a period of its own radical transformation. Chaos in the Western countries' system is escalating – this is dangerous!

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