France says Russia can be represented but president will not be invited because of war in Ukraine

Russia will be invited to send representatives to an international ceremony commemorating the 80th anniversary of D-day – but not Vladimir Putin, the French organisers have announced.

The Élysée is reported to have accepted that the country should be represented but said its leader is not welcome because of Moscow’s ongoing war on Ukraine.

“In view of the circumstances, President Putin will not be invited to take part in the commemorations of the Normandy landings,” the Liberation Mission organising committee said.

    • tal@lemmy.today
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      8 months ago

      In theory, that’s up to the French state.

      In practice, Putin wouldn’t go to a state that wouldn’t agree to extend diplomatic immunity to him.

      And France isn’t going to grant diplomatic immunity and violate it.

      So there isn’t really a scenario where he’s going to go and then France is going to arrest him. Either France doesn’t grant diplomatic immunity and he doesn’t enter France, or France does grant diplomatic immunity and he passes through without issue.

      • Sterile_Technique@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        How much of a shitshow would it cause if France granted diplomatic immunity, and then the US carried out a special drone delivery operation?

        • avater@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          How much of a shitshow would it cause if France granted diplomatic immunity, and then the US carried out a special drone delivery operation?

          why using a drone? Take him to the Eifel tower, I mean it does not have windows but it gets the job done.

          • Sterile_Technique@lemmy.world
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            8 months ago

            It’s kinda like swatting a mosquito off your friend. Might startle them a bit at first, but once they see the intentions were good, they’ll understand.

        • maynarkh@feddit.nl
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          8 months ago

          It would most likely mean the end of NATO, and potentially a lot of other US alliances. It would also make no sense, since the US could kill Putin in Russia if they really wanted to. They don’t want to because MAD.

        • Enoril@jlai.lu
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          8 months ago

          Well US bases and operations (fligths etc) are not welcome here since general DeGaulle so they would be intercepted when entering our countrie borders.

        • Miaou@jlai.lu
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          8 months ago

          “[WR - any%] Make France ally with Russia and invade Germany”

    • Pilferjinx@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      He most probably would now. During the first stage of the invasion, Macron was amenable to Putin and agreed to meet in person. He’s totally flipped 180 now though, knowing he got played like a damn fool for trusting him.

      • Enoril@jlai.lu
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        8 months ago

        When the first stage of the invasion started, Macron was the president of Europe. So he had to play his role and present the view of the european leaders, even if it was not aligned with our internal views.

        I don’t like him, didn’t vote for him the first time (2nd time i did vote for him to avoid marine le pen election, founded by russian banks btw…) but you can’t use his behavior (amenable), trying to avoid escalation, as “yeah i’m your buddy putin, go ahead” or "i totally trust you’.

        Our head of intelligence was fired because HE didn’t present the invasion as realistic (based on normal logic it really silly)… but the whole intel community was fully aware of putin desires. President included. He knew Putin was playing with him. Everybody knew.

        But he had to play his role, as EU leader at this time.

        • rayyy@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          Unfortunately the average person struggles to understand a Tic-Tac-Toe aspect of politics let alone the two-dimensional chess of politics.

        • Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          If you look up “amoral opportunist” in the dictionary, there’s a picture of Macron smiling as smugly as is humanly possible.