Macron risks West split

ATTEMPTS by Britain and the US to impose a hard line onvladimir Putin will be undermined by French President Emmanuel Macron agreeing to visit Russia.

The Kremlin strongman would score a diplomatic coup against a dividedwest if the trip goes ahead.

Relations between Downing Street and Moscow are in the deep freeze after it hacked our coronavirus vaccine secrets, interfered in democratic votes and used London as a “laundromat” for oligarch fortunes.

The UK and US also last week accused Putin of using “in-orbit anti-satellite weaponry” in space.

Meanwhile, Putin is this month testing his new lethal 6,000mph Zircon hypersonic missile in the Barents Sea – between Russia and Norway.

Boris Johnson was believed to have been ready to travel to Moscow in May and meet him before Russia’s commemoration of the end of the Second World War was postponed owing to the pandemic.

It is unclear if and when any face-to-face meeting might now happen. Downing Street said: “We never set out any visits in advance.”

In contrast, Russia’s senior deputy foreign minister Alexander Grushko has said “an agreement on Macron’s visit to Russia has been reached in principle”. And Russia’s ambassador to France Alexei Meshkov has claimed preparations are in full swing.

A British Foreign Office spokesman said: “There can be no normalisation of our relationship until Russia ends the destabilising activity that threatens the UK and our allies.we remain open to a different relationship, but the Russian government must choose a different path.”