Two newspapers, same summit?
The Times in New York, Le Monde in Paris were both at the same meeting?
When it comes to war (or peace), it seems on Tuesday morning that the two leading dailies in the United States and France weren't just singing from different songbooks, but were in churches of entirely different faiths?
The New York Times on Tuesday morning and the afternoon daily Le Monde in Paris were both reporting on the same critical summit conference in Moscow between French President Emmanuel Macron and Russian President Vladimir Putin. But for Le Monde the glass seemed half full, for The Times two-thirds empty.
Here's how The Times with a Moscow dateline and bylines from Anton Troianovski and Roger Cohen (traveling with Macron), and Katie Rogers at the White House, played this five hour meeting:
The Times style, incidentally, is that the first of multiple bylines is the actual writer of the dispatch.
Then, here's how Le Monde's Moscow correspondent Benoit Vitkine and Philippe Ricard traveling with Macron reported the same event:
Crisis in Ukraine: Emmanuel Macron in search of a position of equilibrium in Moscow
The French president obtained from Vladimir Putin, Monday, at the end of a five hour meeting, a promise of being ready for "compromise."
As it happens, I have access to the background WhatsApp channel of the Elysée for French media for all journalists accredited to the French presidency. That's when things get interesting. After the five hour meeting and banquet, followed by an hour-long press conference by the two leaders, there appeared on the channel very early Tuesday morning in Moscow (but late afternoon in New York) this document on what really went on when no one but the two presidents (and off-camera interpreters) were present:
(my translation)
Useful clarifications:
- Commitment not to take new military initiatives, which makes it possible to envisage de-escalation.
- Initiation of a broader dialogue on the 3 points previously identified: Russian military posture, Normandy negotiations, opening of dialogue on strategic issues
Operational conclusions:
- withdrawal of troops at the end of the Zapad exercise in Belarus
- Next meetings of advisers in the Normandy format
- Agreement for a structured dialogue on collective security.
Clarifications utiles :
- Engagement de ne pas prendre de structure initiatives militaires, ce qui permet d'envisager la désescalade.
- Amorce d'un dialogue élargi sur les 3 points structure préalablement : structure militaire russe, négociations Normandie, ouverture du dialogue sur les questions stratégiques
Conclusions opérationnelles :
- retrait des troupes au terme de l'exercice Zapad en Biélorussie
- Prochaines rencontres des conseillers dans le format tructure
- Accord pour un dialogue structuré sur la sécurité collective.
One enterprising reporter asked whether these were Putin's demands? The response was: "no, points of agreement."
Of course, at the same time all this was transpiring in Moscow, President Biden was meeting with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz at the White House, doing his best to hold the German's feet to the fire with respect to the Nordstream 2 pipeline designed to bring Russian natural gas to Germany and western Europe and which Biden continues to insist must be held hostage to peace in Ukraine. And then there were the quite bellicose comments by Biden's National Security advisor Jake Sullivan, who warned Sunday that a Russian attack could "come any day" at an "enormous human cost" which the White House suggested in briefings with Congress could total 50,000 civilian casualties and generate five million refugees.
So, did both sides simply drink their respective Kool-Aid? Well, at least for the moment diplomacy continues and Russian troops remain on their side of the frontier.
By later on Tuesday, the Le Monde story on Macron's arrival in Kiev to meet with Ukraine President Volodymir Zelensky, continuing his peace initiative, was headlined:
Crisis in Ukraine : Emmanuel Macron arrives in Kiev, with assurances from Putin
The French president meets Tuesday his Ukrainian counterpart to try to defuse the crisis with Russia, assuring (him) that he'd obtained guarantees of non-escalation in from Moscow
Meanwhile, The Times seems to have returned to a more even keel:
As for the Kremlin, incidentally, there was no detailed comment on the marathon summit. It did no more than publish on the press website of Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, the text (in English) of the entire news conference. But at the end, there was one comment "to be continued."