PRESS: Macron to visit SPIEF 2018 under Moscow’s invitation

MOSCOW, Oct 9 (PRIME) -- The Elysee Palace has approved Moscow’s invitation for France’s President Emmanuel Macron to visit the next St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) that will take place in May 2018, Kommersant business daily reported on Monday quoting sources.

A source told the business daily that Russian President Vladimir Putin invited Macron to the forum in May 2017 during a meeting in Versailles, and French diplomatic sources said that the government has approved the invitation but does not plan to announce it for now. One of the sources told Kommersant that Paris does not want to hurry and announce the visit before the 2018 presidential elections in Russia.

Moscow thinks that Macron’s participation in the SPIEF will help improve relations with the E.U., while an informed source told the business daily that there will be a chance to “break the ice” in relations between Russia and the E.U. in the spring of 2018.

Some improvements may happen in settlement of the situation in Ukraine, as Moscow expects success in implementation of Putin’s plan for stationing of U.N. peacemakers in Ukraine and hopes that Brussels will finally realize that it is Kiev that is torpedoing implementation of the Minsk agreements, not Russia, Kommersant reported.

The E.U. is to discuss prolongation of the anti-Russian sanctions at the end of the first half of 2018, and Macron’s visit to St. Petersburg will show that Paris, participant of the Normandy Four, “is gradually switching to the camp that favors normalization of relations with Russia,” the source told the business daily.

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