Macron says distancing of Russia is a ‘major error’ for the EU

French president Emmanuel Macron accused Russia of engaging in historical revisionism on World War II but said that a strong Europe needs to remain open to honest dialogue with Moscow.
Macron visited Poland on Tuesday, where he met with the country’s president Andrzej Duda and prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki. His visit was seen as an effort to boost ties between the two countries. Both sides signed an agreement to deepen the two countries’ strategic partnership.
During the visit, he spoke at a university in Krakow, where he condemned the Moscow’s efforts to blame Poland for the outbreak of World War II: “The risk I see is the emergence of distorted historical memory. I see Russia’s approach to reinterpreting WWII to make the Polish people take the blame”, he said.
Tensions between Russia and Poland have been rising after Russia’s president Vladimir Putin has blamed the Western powers and Poland for World War II, to which Poland responded that it fears “Russian military adventurism and imperialist tendencies”.
However, Macron stressed that Russia should not be isolated as it is part of Europe geographically: “I think it a major error to distance ourselves from a part of Europe that we don’t feel comfortable about”, he said.
“I am convinced that we can build an architecture of stability, of peace, of trust in Europe only if we talk with Russia” but “not yield things to Russia, not forget what it did or what it does, but demand a deescalation”, Macron said.