President Macron should take care that the scarlet thread of Maidan does not also entwine him.

On Friday, May 26-2017,

"European Council President Donald Tusk urged Group of Seven leaders on Friday to stick to their sanctions policy on Russia over the Ukraine crisis, a day after a senior U.S. official said Washington had no position on the issue.  
...
"A solution to the conflict can only be reached with the full implementation of the Minsk accords," Tusk said ahead of the summit that gathers the leaders of the United States, Germany, France, Britain, Italy, Japan and Canada." (John Irish : Reuters : Fri May 26, 2017) (my emphasis)

Three days before this meeting of the G7 leaders, Charles Kupchan wrote that,

"Since taking office, Donald Trump has turned his back on Ukraine, largely ignoring Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014 and its aggression in Ukraine’s eastern region of Donbass. The costs of neglect are high. The conflict in Ukraine’s east is continuing to claim lives — some 10,000 so far — and could easily escalate .. " (Financial Times : May 23, 2017) (my emphasis)

Then, on the 29th May-2017, French President Macron and Vladimir Putin had a press conference during which Macron said,

"..About the situation in Ukraine .. We have mentioned this dossier in detail and we have talked about the so-called Minsk process .... I think we could say that it is our intention to hold a new Normandy format round of exchanges with Germany and the Ukraine and to have a complete shared analysis of the situation .. " (Full Video of press conference) (my emphasis)

Putin, however, merely mentioned the word "Ukraine" in passing, preferring to extol the virtues of the increasing trade relations between Russia and France.

In the May 20 talks between Merkel and Putin at Sochi,

"The German Chancellor said that a stable cease-fire has not been established and the Minsk agreements have not been fully implemented by now. She said she will discuss with Poroshenko further work within the framework of the Minsk agreements and the Norman format." (Censor Net : 20-5-2017) (my emphasis)

Now, as reported by Thomas Escritt and Paul Carrel,

"Deputy foreign ministers from Germany, France, Ukraine and Russia will meet in Berlin on Tuesday to discuss the Ukraine crisis in the Normandy group format, a German Foreign Ministry spokesman said.

The Normandy contact group was designed to broker a peace process in rebel-held regions in eastern parts of Ukraine.

"This is to review the current situation on the ground with regard to the ceasefire and with regard to all other commitments under the Minsk agreements," spokesman Martin Schaefer told a regular government news conference." (Reuters : Mon May 29, 2017)

Xavier Moreau (right), founder of the Stratpol Think Tank, in an interview with Putin's mouthpiece, Sputnik, stated that,
 
"It’s clear that if France says no to sanctions they will not be extended or they will be kept by certain countries on a unilateral basis. But there will be no sanctions at a European level. Of course, Germany will not keep sanctions against Russia if France removes them, because Berlin doesn’t want to lose Russia’s market to Paris," Moreau suggested.
Furthermore, the analyst pointed out that Macron can use the possible removal of anti-Russian sanctions as an instrument to bring peace to Ukraine. (Sputnik : 31.05.2017) (my emphasis)

Can President Macron, the former investment banker at Rothschild & Cie Banque, ignore the clamour of French businessmen to continue to rapidly expand their economic links with Putin's Russia, whilst Merkel's businessmen still have to suffer under Germany's sanctions regime against Putin?

Both President Macron and Angela Merkel must be keeping a rather close eye of events in the US.

If Trump manages to lift US sanctions against Russia then following quickly in his footsteps will be Macron since he has no prior political investment in the Minsk2 protocols, and since he has publicly stated that,

" I think we could say that it is our intention to hold a new Normandy format round of exchanges with Germany and the Ukraine and to have a complete shared analysis of the situation .. " (cf. above video clip of Macron)

But the chips continue to be stacked against Trump.

 MSNBC June 1, 2017

As the case against Trump continues to mount, President Macron will find it near impossible to unilaterally lift the French sanctions against Putin if the US sanctions remain intact. 

As I commented in my last blog entry (2-06-2017)

"For both Trump and Putin, speed is now of the essence to get the US sanctions unilaterally lifted. "

Just as the scarlet thread of Maidan has entwined both Trump and Putin together, it now seems as though President Macron himself is now struggling to ensure that he, too, does not become entwined by the scarlet thread of Maidan.

(to be continued)