MOSCOW: Russian President Vladimir Putin said he was ready for compromise and would look at proposals put forward by French leader Emmanuel Macron in talks on Monday, while still blaming the West for raising tensions over Ukraine.
Emerging from nearly five hours of talks in the Kremlin, the two leaders voiced hope that a solution could be found to the worst crisis between Russia and the West since the end of the Cold War.
Repeatedly thanking Macron for coming to Moscow, Putin said at a joint press conference that the French leader had presented several ideas worth studying.
“A number of his ideas, proposals… are possible as a basis for further steps,” Putin said, adding: “We will do everything to find compromises that suit everyone.”
He did not provide any details but said the two leaders would speak by phone after Macron meets with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday.
Macron said he made proposals of “concrete security guarantees” and that Putin had “assured me of his readiness to engage”.
The French presidency said the proposals include an undertaking from both sides not to take any new military action, the launching of a new strategic dialogue, and efforts to revive the Ukrainian peace process.
Putin again denied that Russia was acting aggressively, despite Western fears of a possible invasion of Ukraine after Russia amassed tens of thousands of its troops on its borders.
“It is not us who are moving towards NATO’s borders,” he said, in reference to alliance deployments in eastern Europe.
– Biden threatens gas pipeline –
The meeting in Moscow came at the start of a week of intense diplomacy over the Ukraine crisis, with US President Joe Biden also hosting German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Washington on Monday.
Biden made a categorical vow at the talks to shut down the controversial Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from Russia to Europe if Moscow launches an invasion.
“If Russia invades — that means tanks or troops crossing the border of Ukraine, again — then there will be no longer a Nord Stream 2,” Biden told a joint White House news conference with Scholz, following bilateral talks in the Oval Office.
“I promise you,” Biden said, “we will bring an end to it.”
