Vladimir Putin
Russian leader Vladimir Putin has recently secured his 5th consecutive win as the President as is
entitled to be in the office until the year 2030 with no immediate opposition in sight. The 71 year old
leader born on 7th October 1952, had previously been an intelligence officer before contesting for
presidency. Putin has been in the office since the year 1999 as the president of Russia. Putin has also
previously been in office as the Prime Minister of Russia since 1999 to 2000, then in the year 2008 to
2012, as the president from 2000 to 2008. Putin’s reign in office for such a long period enforces his
great leadership qualities and efficiency in terms of a leader. Dictatorship or not, Putin has been
voted as the most powerful person 4 times in a row between 2013 and 2016.
Russia v/s France
As most of the world’s attention currently focused in one of the major wars in Ukraine and Gaza,
there is another massive possibility of a potential war between erupting between the French and the
Russians. The recent developments have come to surface following the recent terrorist bomblast
attacks at the Moscow Concert Hall which had injured more than 100 individuals and killed over 60
individuals as per the official reports. All the details linked to this terrorist activity have been
confirmed as an attack performed by the ISIS terrorist organisation. However, to everyone’s surprise,
Vladimir Putin blasted allegations that France may have had some link to this terrorist attack at the
Moscow Hall and suggested that the perpetrators might have had links to the adversary in Kyiv. This
situation has seemingly escalated since then and the Russian Intelligence have issued warnings
against France of a plausible attack soon.
Timeline:
The Russo- French Relations
France- Russian relations or more specifically; the France- Russian relations or the Russo- French
relations , much like any other geopolitical relations has always been deeply embedded within
utmost chaos and conflict between both the nations.
Naleonic war / European Invasion
The tensions between both the nations are not a recent phenomenon and germinates since the
historical context of the Napoleonic Era , which existed between the years from 1799 to 1815. The
genesis of this historical war began with the contention to acquire and dominate over the Central
and Eastern Europe. The tensions escalated and was followed by an invasion on Russia in the year
1812, which was precariously carried forth by Napoleon, himself. However, to everyone’s dismay,
this 1st invasion was a failure. Which resulted an easy domination from Russia over the execution of
authority in the Eastern Europe.
Crimean War
Russia, now was not very content with the win and aspired to rule over the Ottoman Empire as well.
Which led to the Crimean War which was fought for a period of 2 years from 1854 to 1856. The
Crimean War was fought by Russia against two of his enemies- France and Britain to prevent Russia
from acquiring the Empire.
France forges alliance with Russia
In the decade of the 1890s, France was diplomatically isolated and surprisingly came into the
decision to forge its alliances with Russia, the same country it was previously at war with. This
powerful alliance declared war Germany in the years from 1914 to 1918.
Russian Revolution
With the Russian Revolution in the year 1917, the Bolsheviks signed The Treaty Of Brest- Litovsk
with the Central Powers in 1918, a period which subsequently led to the Cold War between the two
powerful allies of the world. E Henceforth, since the year 1989, both the nations have always
harboured brewing tensions between them.
Russia v/s Ukraine
In the year 2022, the Russian invasion of Ukraine and with France as one of the many European
Union nations, Russia declared all EU Nations as “unfriendly nations”.
However, ever since Emmanuel Macron came to power as the President of France, this overtly
brewing relationship between France and Russia came to a standstill.
Cut to present, Vladimir Putin had summoned the French Ambassador to the Foreign Ministry
alleging claims that the French mercenaries have been in defending against Russia, and fighting
against them in Ukraine. Thereby, evidently marking themselves off as Russia’s enemies. The Russian
Intelligence warns France of “death and destruction”. Emmanuel Macron, too, seems ready to enter
into war against Russia. Macron has increased and alerted his security and commanded into
‘readiness and to prepare’ all troops for an eventual war situation. This announcement came just
after a secret meeting which Macron held with on Friday, that is on the 22nd of March 2024, following
the tragic terrorist attack on Moscow which claimed over 100 lives of innocent civilians.
France has already prepared a contingent of about 2000 troops to send in Ukraine and fight against
Russia,as reported by the Head of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service.
Putin warns against World War III
Putin issued a warning to the west, claiming that a direct confrontation between between Russia and
the NATO Alliances could dangerously escalate and result into the possible outcome of a 3rd World
War, as he puts it as “Just one step away from World War 3..” emphasising that this particular
outcome is undesirable to anyone. Despite frequently highlighting the risks of a nuclear conflict,
Putin affirms that he has not have felt compelled by the desire to deploy any nuclear weapons in
Ukraine’s premises.
The possibility of NATO’s involvement in Ukraine’s situation was further complicated by Macron’s
remarks last month, in which he did not dismiss the deployment of his troops in Ukraine’s premises.
This remark was received with mixed reactions at an international level with some EU countries
voicing their support and some Western countries showing their reluctance. Even though Macron
has expressed that the ISIS were responsible for the attack and that France too are in a huge risk of
such a dangerous attack from this terrorist organisation, their decision to send in their troops and
mercenaries to Ukraine could have been the one catalyst, responsible for such a reaction from Putin
to wage a war