Putin is ‘not unpleasant’ in person, says Macron

EMMANUEL MACRON has said the “paradox” of Vladimir Putin is that he is not an “unpleasant” man in person.

The French president told Les Rencontres du Papotin, a French TV show where autistic journalists interview famous people, that the Russian leader had an amiable manner in person.

In the interview, recorded in late November and aired on Saturday, Mr Macron said: “First of all, when you meet him, he is not unpleasant. That’s the paradox, you see.”

Mr Macron has been an advocate of maintaining a dialogue with Mr Putin since he invaded Ukraine last February.

Over the summer, he angered Kyiv by saying Western governments should not “humiliate” Mr Putin.

Yet in recent days, Mr Macron became the first Western ally to agree to send battle tanks to Ukraine.

In his New Year TV address, Mr Macron also vowed to Ukrainians that France will “help you to victory”, the first time he has explicitly supported a battlefield victory for Kyiv.

Mr Zelensky thanked Mr Macron in a video address and appealed to other allies to do the same.

“This is something that sends a clear signal to all our partners – there is no rational reason why Ukraine has not yet been supplied with Western tanks,” he said.

Hours later, the US and Germany said they would send armoured vehicles to help repel Russian forces.

On Les Rencontres du Papotin, recorded weeks before his public shift on Ukraine policy, Mr Macron distilled Mr Putin’s goal in invading Ukraine as a land grab. He said: “I think there is nothing to justify starting a war.

“Basically, he launched this war to recover territories and to extend Russia’s perimeter to the empire that once existed.

“He took a very heavy responsibility for him, his people, obviously for the people of Ukraine and for us all.”