French President Emmanuel Macron lamented President Joe Biden’s choice of words during an interview, arguing that it could be escalatory to call Russian President Vladimir Putin out directly over multiple reports of war crimes in Ukraine.
Reporting site Visegrad 24 tweeted video of Macron along with the caption, “Macron is criticizing Biden for calling Putin ‘a butcher.’ The French president says it’s not constructive. ‘I would not use that kind of language. If a ceasefire is to be brokered, we must not escalate — neither through words nor actions.'”
BREAKING:
Macron is criticizing Biden for calling Putin “a butcher”. The French president says it’s not constructive.
“I would not use that kind of language. If a ceasefire is to be brokered, we must not escalate — neither through words nor actions.” pic.twitter.com/REzBTzJWc5
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) March 27, 2022
Macron appeared to be suggesting that it was more important to keep an open dialogue with Putin than to be forthright about the actions he has either permitted or expressly ordered as his occupation forces continue their invasion of Ukraine.
“Macron warned against calling Putin a ‘butcher.’ ‘I wouldn’t use terms like that because I’m still in talks with President Putin,’ the French President said during an interview. Prior, U.S. President Joe Biden called Putin a ‘butcher,’ a ‘murderous dictator’ & ‘a pure thug,'” the Kyiv Independent reported.
⚡️ Macron warned against calling Putin a 'butcher.'
“I wouldn’t use terms like that because I’m still in talks with President Putin,” the French President said during an interview.
Prior, U.S. President Joe Biden called Putin a “butcher,” a “murderous dictator” & “a pure thug.”
— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) March 27, 2022
Garry Kasparov immediately ripped into Macron, saying, “Apparently Macron will never realize that the problem isn’t accurately calling Putin what he is, but that he’s still in talks with him no matter how many war crimes he commits.”
He went on to suggest that Macron ought to make his next statement effectively appeasing Putin from the nearly-destroyed port city of Mariupol — where Russian troops fired on a maternity hospital and a theater that was clearly marked as a shelter housing children.
“Macron should have his next humiliating chat with Putin in Mariupol. Engagement with a dictator is a loss of leverage and a show of weakness. Pressure comes from isolation, which targets Putin’s hold on power, the only thing he cares about,” Kasparov tweeted.
“Even if you think your goals are pure, like getting humanitarian aid into Ukraine, groveling before Putin is never going to be the most effective way to achieve them,” Kasparov continued. “It gives him more chips to gamble with. Then he’ll take more hostages to gain more.”
“Dictatorship are sociopaths, narcissists. They see only what helps them,” he concluded. “‘I bombed entire cities full of innocents to the ground and foreign leaders are still coming to beg for my help. I am powerful and should continue bombing.'”
Macron was not the only one to criticize Biden for remarks he made while meeting with NATO allies in Europe — but most of the president’s critics were not terribly concerned that Biden had called Putin a “butcher.” They were more concerned that he may have verbally slipped his way into escalating tensions by suggesting that American troops might go to Ukraine, that NATO was ready to retaliate with chemical weapons if Russia used them first, and that he might be advocating regime change in Russia.