Putin to meet Hollande in France

Leaders to discuss Syria and Ukraine amid spike in tensions between Kremlin and West over Russian bombing in Syria

By AFP 6 October 2016, 5:25 pm
Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) welcomes French President Francois Hollande before a meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow on November 26, 2015. (AFP/Alexander Zemlianichenko)

Russian President Vladimir Putin will hold talks with his French counterpart Francois Hollande during a visit to France on October 19, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Thursday.

The two leaders “will discuss international issues including Syria and Ukraine,” Lavrov told France’s Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault at a meeting in Moscow.

Putin’s visit to France — his first to the country since he attended a climate summit in Paris late last year — has been in the planning for months, with the Kremlin strongman expected to inaugurate a Russian Orthodox cultural complex in the capital.

The trip comes amid a spike in tensions with the West over Moscow’s bombing campaign in war-torn Syria.

Ayrault jetted in to Moscow on Thursday for talks with Lavrov before heading to Washington as France tries to garner support for a UN resolution on a ceasefire in the Syrian city of Aleppo, his office said.

Syrian government forces gather in the largely deserted Palestinian refugee camp of Handarat, north of Aleppo, on September 24, 2016 after they captured the area following multiple Russian air strikes. (AFP PHOTO / GEORGE OURFALIAN)

The US announced on Monday it had suspended talks with Moscow on a ceasefire, accusing Russia of trying to bomb civilians “into submission.”

France and Germany have also spearheaded efforts to mediate peace efforts to end the conflict in east Ukraine, which the West and Kiev accuse Moscow of fueling.

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