After nearly three years in a Russian prison, former U.S. Marine Trevor Reed is back in the United States on Thursday after a swap with a Russian held in the U.S. 

 

Reed had been convicted of endangering the lives of two Moscow police officers while drunk. The U.S. called the trial a “theater of the absurd.” 

 

Reed arrived in his native Texas and will spend a few days in a military hospital to monitor his health. 

 

A Texas congressman posted photos on Twitter of Reed’s arrival.  

 

“It’s been (a) very exciting day for The Reed family. Trevor is back in the USA,” Reed’s mother, Paula Reed, tweeted early Thursday. 

 

Reed was exchanged for Russian pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko, who had been convicted of trying to smuggle drugs into the U.S. He had been arrested by U.S. special forces in Liberia in 2010. 

 

The official swap reportedly took place at an airport in Turkey. 

 

“The American plane pulled up next to the Russian plane, and they walked both prisoners across at the same time, like you see in the movies,” said Trevor’s father, Joey Reed. 

 

The U.S. is also trying to secure the release of another American, former Marine Paul Whelan, who was sentenced to 16 years in June 2020 for espionage.  

Some information in this report comes from Reuters. 

 
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Ukraine’s deputy foreign minister said Wednesday that the list of war crimes committed by Russian troops in her country grows daily and accountability is critical.

“The city of Mariupol has turned into dust,” Emine Dzhaparova told an informal meeting of the U.N. Security Council. “Thousands of civilians live in blockade without water, electricity, communications and basic things that all people need.”

She said that new mass graves and buried bodies are found daily in Ukrainian cities and that Russian soldiers carry out crimes on civilians, including torture, rape and murder.

“Russia must be [held] accountable for its crimes as a state,” she said, adding that the individuals who carried out the crimes must be prosecuted, too.

“The one who raped a girl, kicking out her teeth; who killed a man riding a bicycle; who fusilladed a queue of people waiting for bread; who shot humanitarian convoys, maternity hospitals, ambulances, cars,” Dzhaparova said. “These people have names and faces, and they are to be brought to criminal liability.”

8,000 investigations

Ukraine Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova said from Kyiv that her office has opened 8,000 cases to probe allegations of violations and the list continues to grow.

Several governments have offered Ukraine assistance in carrying out investigations and documenting abuses.

In an unprecedented move, more than 40 states have referred the situation in Ukraine to the International Criminal Court in The Hague. Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan has made two trips to Ukraine and has an investigative team on the ground that includes experts, lawyers and anthropologists.

He said he sent three communications to Russia but had not received a reply. He urged Moscow to cooperate with his office, saying if it wants to expose accusations against it as fake, the best way to do so is to hold them up to scrutiny.

“My office and myself have no political agenda other than to get to the truth,” he assured member states.

But Russia’s representative dismissed the ICC as an institution susceptible to political pressure and financial leverage exerted by such countries as the United States and Britain.

“ICC is merely a political instrument and has nothing in common with justice,” Russian legal adviser Sergey Leonidchenko said. He said Russia would have its own meeting on accountability with its own briefers on May 6.

In terms of new crimes, the U.S. representative said Washington now had credible information that a Russian military unit operating near the eastern city of Donetsk had executed Ukrainians who were attempting to surrender, rather than take them into custody.

‘Deeply disturbing pattern’

Ambassador-at-Large for Global Criminal Justice Beth Van Schaack said that, if true, this would violate a core principle of war prohibiting the summary execution of civilians who surrender.

“These images and reports suggest that these atrocities are not the act of rogue units or individuals; rather, they reveal a deeply disturbing pattern of systematic abuse across all areas where Russia’s forces are engaged,” she said.

Russia has a record of abuses, including in Syria, where its troops have backed President Bashar al-Assad’s forces since 2015.

“The pattern of abuse we are seeing in Ukraine is consistent with well-documented grave crimes by Russian forces in other places such as Syria,” Human Rights Watch’s Ida Sawyer said from Kyiv. “The lack of accountability for those violations has regrettably opened the door for what is occurring today.”

Human rights lawyer and activist Amal Clooney said the horrific scenes from the Kyiv suburb of Bucha reminded her of the 2012 massacre of 108 civilians, many of them children, in the northwestern Syrian town of Houla.

“This Security Council met in an emergency session to decry the killings, and people thought it would be a turning point for accountability. It wasn’t,” Clooney said. “And now the same Russian general known as “the butcher,” who mounted a brutal attack on civilians in Aleppo, is massacring innocent families in Mariupol.”

She urged the diplomats not to grow numb to the violence as the war grinds on and merely call for justice that is never delivered.
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The nations of Central Asia find themselves walking a tightrope over the war in Ukraine, unhappy over Moscow’s unprovoked attack on another former Soviet republic but economically dependent on Russia and fearful of angering its leader.

The response, in Uzbekistan and elsewhere, has been a carefully guarded policy of neutrality as laid out last month in remarks to the Uzbek Senate by then-Foreign Minister Abdulaziz Kamilov.

“We recognize the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine” and consider the breakaway regions of Luhansk and Donetsk to be Ukrainian territory, he said. Yet, he added, Tashkent values its deep political and economic ties with Russia.

Kamilov echoed President Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s insistence that Uzbekistan will not join military blocs or deploy its forces abroad. Others in Mirziyoyev’s administration say Tashkent’s “stand on the war is firm” and that neutrality is its mantra. Any mention of the war brings a reminder of the nation’s neutrality.

U.S. Ambassador to Uzbekistan Daniel Rosenblum said Washington understands why Tashkent will not explicitly denounce Russian President Vladimir Putin’s aggression.

WATCH: Ambassador Daniel Rosenblum speaks with VOA’s Navbahor Imamova:

  

Among the pressures it faces is the nation’s reliance on remittances from citizens who work in Russia, which accounted for 11.6% of Uzbekistan’s gross domestic product in 2020. The figures for Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan were even higher, at 31% and 27% respectively.

“We deeply respect the fact that due to geography and history, Uzbekistan has to balance a lot of interests and get along with its neighbors, who are also trading partners and important sources of investment,” Rosenblum told VOA.

But, he said, the United States expects real neutrality.

“We understand you’re not going to be criticizing the invasion or providing the kind of aid that many countries in Europe are to Ukraine, military aid and things of that nature,” he said. “But you’re also not going to be cheering on or aiding and abetting the other side.”

Uzbek officials told VOA they hear the American ambassador but fear Moscow.

“We are obviously afraid of Russia,” confessed one policymaker, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “We don’t agree with them, but we see what becomes of a country if you get on the nerves of the Kremlin and President Putin.”

“Who will defend us if we are attacked?” a veteran Uzbek lawmaker pointedly asked. “We must take care of ourselves.”

That fear has led the government to maintain a tight rein on public reporting about the war. State media do not attempt independent coverage but simply repeat official positions. Private outlets in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, meanwhile, have faced official scrutiny when they attempted to analyze the conflict objectively or question the war.

Officials at several major news sites and channels told VOA they prefer self-censorship to dealing with angry authorities. In Uzbekistan, VOA found that nearly a dozen reporters, editors and bloggers were called in by the State Security Service in March because of their coverage of Ukraine.

Government officials say such measures are necessary to combat misinformation and disinformation but deny that independent media are being silenced.

“Uzbek media are covering Ukraine,” said Komil Allamjonov, a former presidential press secretary and head of Uzbekistan’s media regulator. “No one is banned from touching the topic, but we must be neutral and unbiased. This is not ‘our’ war. Uzbekistan has no journalists on the ground. Relying on foreign media requires caution and responsibility.”

 

Allamjonov, who owns a TV channel in Tashkent, co-chairs the Public Foundation for Support and Development of National Mass Media in Uzbekistan, together with Mirziyoyev’s eldest daughter, Saida Mirziyoyeva.

Talking to VOA from Geneva, where they were meeting U.N. agencies, Allamjonov said Uzbekistan deserves a robust media, capable of representing the public interest at home and abroad.

“Media freedom is key, and the way forward,” said Allamjonov. “We need international assistance in promoting accountability, capacity building and media literacy. Our fund is open for cooperation with development agencies, watchdogs and advocacy groups.”

But one Uzbek TV news director in Tashkent, who spoke on condition of anonymity, acknowledged that most Uzbek outlets shy away from analyzing the conflict in Ukraine.

“It’s not like we are reporting live from Ukraine or Russia,” the news director said. “We pick up international sources like yours. The most we can do is engage the public, experts and officials. But since we can’t control what people say, we choose not to touch the topic.”

That leaves most Central Asians to get their information about the war from digital and foreign media, including Kremlin-funded outlets.

“There’s a lot of Russian media penetration here,” Rosenblum said. He said Uzbeks value media in their own language but find it hard to avoid Russia’s “false and distorted picture of Ukraine and the rest of the world.”

“The volume of voices we’re hearing from the Russian media drowns out others. It’s so loud, so vehement, so aggressive that it makes it seem that’s what everyone is thinking and saying,” he said.

Rosenblum is sympathetic to the Uzbek fear of provoking Russia but worries this will yield an information blockade and promote misleading content.

“I’m unaware of any effort to block the falsehoods that are coming out of the Russian media. … That’s also not ‘neutral’ and ‘balanced,’ right? So, if you’re going to be balanced and neutral, it must be on both sides,” he said. “It helps to give a fully rounded picture of what’s happening, so the media should be allowed to do its job.”

It is hard to verify reports about the war, the diplomat admitted. “But at the end, there is truth and there are facts. And I deeply believe that the facts of what is happening in Ukraine are coming out to the world. And it’s revealing a tragedy, a human tragedy.”

Noting that Mirziyoyev has repeatedly cited the need for vocal and critical media as a watchdog, he said, “If you’re going to have a principle that professional, truthful, aggressive reporting is important to the health of a society, then that should apply all the time. It shouldn’t just be, you know, when it’s convenient.”
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A hands-off approach to moderating content at Elon Musk’s Twitter could clash with ambitious new laws in Europe meant to protect users from disinformation, hate speech and other harmful material. 

Musk, who describes himself as a “free speech absolutist,” pledged to buy Twitter for $44 billion this week, with European Union officials and digital campaigners quick to say that any focus on free speech to the detriment of online safety would not fly after the 27-nation bloc solidified its status as a global leader in the effort to rein in the power of tech giants.

“If his approach will be ‘just stop moderating it,’ he will likely find himself in a lot of legal trouble in the EU,” said Jan Penfrat, senior policy adviser at digital rights group EDRi.

Musk will soon be confronted with Europe’s Digital Services Act, which will require big tech companies like Twitter, Google and Facebook parent Meta to police their platforms more strictly or face billions in fines.

Other crackdowns

Officials agreed just days ago on the landmark legislation, expected to take effect by 2024. It’s unclear how soon it could spark a similar crackdown elsewhere, with U.S. lawmakers divided on efforts to address competition, online privacy, disinformation and more.

That means the job of reining in a Musk-led Twitter could fall to Europe — something officials signaled they’re ready for.

“Be it cars or social media, any company operating in Europe needs to comply with our rules — regardless of their shareholding,” Thierry Breton, the EU’s internal market commissioner, tweeted Tuesday. “Mr Musk knows this well. He is familiar with European rules on automotive, and will quickly adapt to the Digital Services Act.”

Musk’s plans for Twitter haven’t been fleshed out beyond a few ideas for new features, opening its algorithm to public inspection and defeating “bots” posing as real users.

France’s digital minister, Cedric O, said Musk has “interesting things” that he wants to push for Twitter, “but let’s remember that #DigitalServicesAct — and therefore the obligation to fight misinformation, online hate, etc. — will apply regardless of the ideology of its owner.” 

EU Green Party lawmaker Alexandra Geese, who was involved in negotiating the law, said, “Elon Musk’s idea of free speech without content moderation would exclude large parts of the population from public discourse,” such as women and people of color. 

Twitter declined to comment. Musk tweeted that “the extreme antibody reaction from those who fear free speech says it all.” He added that by free speech, he means “that which matches the law” and that he’s against censorship going “far beyond the law.” 

The United Kingdom also has an online safety law in the works that threatens senior managers at tech companies with prison if they don’t comply. Users would get more power to block anonymous trolls, and tech companies would be forced to proactively take down illegal content. 

Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s office stressed the need for Twitter to remain “responsible” and protect users. 

“Regardless of ownership, all social media platforms must be responsible,” Johnson spokesman Max Blain said Tuesday. 

Need seen for cleanup

Damian Collins, a British lawmaker who led a parliamentary committee working on the bill, said that if Musk really wants to make Twitter a free speech haven, “he will need to clean up the digital town square.” 

Collins said Twitter has become a place where users are drowned out by coordinated armies of “bot” accounts spreading disinformation and division and that users refrain from expressing themselves “because of the hate and abuse they will receive.” 

The laws in the U.K. and EU target such abuse. Under the EU’s Digital Services Act, tech companies must put in place systems so illegal content can be easily flagged for swift removal. 

Experts said Twitter will have to go beyond taking down clearly defined illegal content like hate speech, terrorism and child sexual abuse and grapple with material that falls into a gray zone. 

The law includes requirements for big tech platforms to carry out annual risk assessments to determine how much their products and design choices contribute to the spread of divisive material that can affect issues like health or public debate. 

“This is all about assessing to what extent your users are seeing, for example, Russian propaganda in the context of the Ukraine war,” online harassment or COVID-19 misinformation, said Mathias Vermeulen, public policy director at data rights agency AWO. 

Violations would incur fines of up to 6% of a company’s global annual revenue. Repeat offenders can be banned from the EU.

More openness 

The Digital Services Act also requires tech companies to be more transparent by giving regulators and researchers access to data on how their systems recommend content to users. 

Musk has similar thoughts, saying his plans include “making the algorithms open source to increase trust.” 

Penfrat said it’s a great idea that could pave the way to a new ecosystem of ranking and recommendation options. 

But he panned another Musk idea — “authenticating all humans” — saying that taking away anonymity or pseudonyms from people, including society’s most marginalized, was the dream of every autocrat.
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The World Health Organization says the war in Ukraine has interrupted lifesaving immunizations in Ukraine, setting back years of progress in countering vaccine preventable diseases.

This is World Immunization Week, a time to celebrate the marvel of vaccines that have saved the lives of countless millions. WHO spokesman Bhanu Bhatnagar spoke about vaccinations at an immunization center in Rivne Oblast, a Ukrainian province near the border with Belarus.

The center is in a technical college that has been repurposed into a home for some 100 internally displaced people. Bhatnagar says he has come here to support the Ukrainian Health Ministry’s rollout of routine and catch-up immunizations for children, adolescents and adults.

“There are many children streaming through. Parents are bringing their children to catch-up on really important lifesaving, potentially life-saving immunizations from measles, to polio, to diphtheria, tetanus, and, as well the COVID-19 vaccine. … Internally displaced people are vulnerable. They have been forced from their homes. The health system is in crisis mode and many of them do not have access to health care.”

Bhatnagar says health needs do not stop in a time of war and it is important to keep up immunization activities, especially during the pandemic. Before the war, he says Ukraine was a poster child when it came to health care reform – and was making great strides in preventing vaccine preventable diseases.

Unfortunately, he says this progress has been derailed. He notes there was a polio outbreak in the country just before the war started. He says a rollout of polio vaccines that began February first was disrupted due to the conflict.

“So, that is why again it is really important that we get a polio vaccine into children’s arms. Even one child with polio means that every child is threatened, any under or unvaccinated child…But at this time only 44 percent of the targeted children have been reached with a polio vaccine and that is approximately 69,000 children.”

The WHO spokesman says COVID-19 vaccines continue to be rolled out despite the challenges of the war. However, the country only has 40 percent coverage across the board, which, he says, is lower than average for the rest of the European region.

Latest reports put the number of coronavirus cases at nearly five million, including more than 108,000 deaths.
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Russia’s Gazprom halted gas supplies Wednesday to Poland and Bulgaria, the latest step in the economic fight linked to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Russia has demanded that European nations, many of which rely on Russia for large portions of energy supplies, pay for natural gas in Russia’s currency, the ruble.

Gazprom said Wednesday that Poland and Bulgaria had not done so and would therefore have their gas supplies suspended.

Polish and Bulgarian officials said the Gazprom move amounted to breach of contract.

A number of European Union members have moved to lessen or eliminate their dependence on Russian energy, including by seeking other sources and boosting their use of renewable energy.

“Gazprom’s announcement is another attempt by Russia to blackmail us with gas,” EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Wednesday. “We are prepared for this scenario. We are mapping out our coordinated EU response.”

Russia’s defense ministry said Wednesday its forces carried out missile strikes overnight that destroyed 59 targets in Ukraine, including “hangars with a large batch of foreign weapons and ammunition” sent by the United States and European countries to aid Ukraine’s military.

The United States and its allies signaled Tuesday they are moving swiftly and powerfully to support Ukrainian forces and escalate pressure on Russia’s economy.

The United States at first “needed weeks” to move military equipment and munitions to Ukraine, Secretary of State Antony Blinken told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, but it now often dispatches new armaments to the Ukrainians within three days.

Blinken said since he and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv over the weekend, the two countries were “largely aligned in what they say they need and what we think we’re able to provide.”

Heavy weapons

Germany’s government said Tuesday it would send heavy weapons to Ukraine for the first time. Austin, meeting at a U.S. air base in Germany with officials from 40 countries, including NATO members, said Russian President Vladimir Putin “never imagined the whole world would rally behind Ukraine so swiftly and surely.”

“We’re seeing more support every day” to combat the Russian invasion, he said Tuesday. “We don’t have any time to waste. We’ve got to move at the speed of war.”

The White House said Germany’s decision signaled unprecedented unity in the face of Russian aggression.

“The announcement by Germany is in line with announcements we’ve seen by a number of European countries in providing assistance they have never before provided, which is part of the significance here,” said White House press secretary Jen Psaki. “So, this is an unprecedented change to provide lethal aid to another country, and that’s the significance here from Germany. But I’d also note that Norway provided Mistral anti-aircraft missiles, that a number of countries have provided types of assistance that they have never done in the past, and that really speaks to the significant unity of NATO.”

The U.S. defense secretary also said allies supporting Ukraine would meet monthly to coordinate further aid. As he opened the talks, he said the aim was to “help Ukraine to win the fight against Russia’s unjust invasion and to help build up Ukraine for tomorrow’s challenges.”

Austin also rebuked Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov for suggesting that the war could evolve into a nuclear conflict between Russia and the West.

“We certainly will do everything in our power … to make sure it doesn’t spin out of control,” Austin said. “Nobody wants to see a nuclear war. Nobody can win it,” he said, adding that “it’s unhelpful and dangerous to rattle sabers” over a nuclear threat.

Austin’s appeal to allies for more help for Ukraine came a day after he said the U.S. objective in supporting Ukraine was to leave Russia with a “weakened” military. He described Russian casualties so far as “pretty substantial,” with some military analysts saying as many as 20,000 Russian troops have died.

Moscow accused the West of carrying out a proxy war against Russia by sending more munitions to Ukraine and warned of a “considerable” risk that the fighting could evolve into a nuclear conflict.

Diplomatic efforts

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres met Tuesday in Moscow with Putin and Lavrov in an attempt to broker a cease-fire agreement, even as Russia launched new attacks on eastern and southern Ukraine. Guterres then headed to Ukraine, stopping first in Poland to meet with that nation’s president in a city along the Ukrainian border used as a base for American troops and humanitarian efforts.

During the two-hour meeting with Guterres in the Russian capital, Putin agreed “in principle” to allow the U.N. and the International Committee of the Red Cross to assist with the evacuation of civilians from the Azovstal iron and steel plant in Mariupol, said Stephane Dujarric, Guterres’ spokesman.

The U.N. chief said that while Russia and the U.N. had “different interpretations of what’s happening in Ukraine,” there was still the possibility for a serious conversation about working to minimize suffering and “end the war as soon as possible.”

Guterres said he wanted to further address the wider impacts of the conflict on the world’s most vulnerable populations amid rising food and energy prices.

Lavrov welcomed Guterres and the U.N.’s desire for dialogue, while accusing Western governments of flouting principles of multilateralism and instead undertaking a unilateral approach to the world.

Russia’s “goals are primarily to protect the civilian population, and here we are ready to cooperate with our colleagues from the U.N. to alleviate the plight of the civilian population,” Lavrov said.

But Ukrainian officials say Russian forces have repeatedly blocked the attempted creation of humanitarian corridors to let civilians escape from the devastation of Mariupol.

Also on Tuesday, State Department spokesman Ned Price said American diplomats have taken concrete steps to reestablish a U.S. diplomatic presence in Ukraine.

“I can confirm that the deputy chief of mission and members of the embassy team traveled to Lviv, Ukraine, today, where they were able to continue our close collaboration with key Ukrainian partners,” he said. “Today, they met with interlocutors from the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.”

National security correspondent Jeff Seldin contributed to this report. Some information came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
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He is not low key or known for listening, key attributes of his former German counterpart, Angela Merkel.  

But with his reelection Sunday, French President Emmanuel Macron has arguably cemented another role, some say: succeeding Merkel as the European Union’s de-facto leader, with his call for a stronger, closer EU resonating, especially with the war in Ukraine.  

“Merkel was more of a crisis manager but with no vision,” said Sebastien Maillard, director of the Paris-based Jacques Delors Institute think tank. “Macron has a clear vision of what kind of European integration he wants.” 

Not surprisingly, most European leaders cheered Macron’s win against far-right leader Marine Le Pen, who called for drastically overhauling and downgrading the 27-member bloc.  

“In this turbulent period, we need a solid Europe and a France totally committed to a more sovereign and more strategic European Union,” tweeted European Council President Charles Michel.  

Macron’s second and final five-year term as French president may help push those goals forward. How far will depend not only on getting other EU leaders on board, but also on what happens in France, starting with the outcome of June parliamentary elections.  

Additionally, the next two months, when France wraps up the rotating EU presidency, will offer an immediate test.  

Three areas are particularly key, analyst Maillard said: pushing through EU energy sanctions against Moscow — a sticking point for Germany, which is heavily dependent on Russian oil and gas, and possibly for Poland, after Russia’s announcement it would halt gas supplies; moving forward on Macron’s call for a closer and stronger European defense; and deciding on EU membership bids, starting with Ukraine. 

Next month, Macron is expected to present his vision of Europe’s future at a conference in Strasbourg, France. It’s not the first to be laid out by the 44-year-old leader, whose reelection celebrations were accompanied by the EU anthem, Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy.” 

Pro-Europe winds  

Macron may benefit from the tailwinds of multiple recent challenges, from euroskeptic U.S. President Donald Trump to the COVID-19 crisis and now Russia’s war in Ukraine, which helped to reshape European citizens’ sentiments about Brussels.  

“We wouldn’t be vaccinated without Europe, our economy wouldn’t have recovered without European support and our sanctions against Russia would be senseless if they weren’t on this (EU-wide) scale,” Maillard said.  

Even in French elections, dominated by domestic concerns, the EU helped determine some voting choices. Macron himself called the runoff against Le Pen a “referendum” on Europe. 

“I’m very frightened about what would happen to France, in Europe and in the world, if we had Marine Le Pen as president,” said Paris-area senior Benedicte Tardivo, who cast her ballot for Macron.  

Public opinion also appears to have softened Le Pen’s once staunchly anti-Europe platform.  

“Now, Marine Le Pen is not advocating to leave the EU, because she saw the French are actually attached to it,” said expert Mathilde Ciulla, of the European Council on Foreign Relations policy institute. “So, she talks about changing it from within, which I think is a kind of victory for Macron.”  

Such wins aren’t happening everywhere.  

Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orban, who embraces an “illiberal democracy” and flouts EU rule-of-law principles, recently won a fourth term in office. But he appears increasingly alone.  

Besides Le Pen, another euroskeptic ally, Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa, lost her election bid this past week. Another EU dissident, Poland, has earned marks for taking in millions of Ukrainian refugees and, unlike Hungary, is hostile to Moscow.  

“Orban is weakened,” said analyst Maillard. “He’s been reelected in his own country. But he’s isolated among the 27 other member states. While Macron, right now, is the most prominent leader within the European Council” of EU heads of state.  

Team player?  

Macron’s bigger challenge, some say, may not be leadership, but rather becoming a better team player, adopting the kind of consensus-building skills that Merkel excelled at. Not just for Europe, but also for France, where critics say he fails to listen and accept other viewpoints. 

“Macron has the faults of his virtues,” wrote historian Timothy Garden Ash in Britain’s The Guardian newspaper. “I have never seen a human being with more drive, ambition, energy and self-belief. But he can often seem arrogant, Jupiterian, neo-Napoleonic – and therefore rubs a great many of his compatriots and fellow Europeans the wrong way.” 

Analyst Ciulla suggests another approach. 

“I think it would be a mistake for him to position himself as the leader of Europe,” she said. “France is not the best at building coalitions, but France should try to build coalitions.”  

Rather than going it alone, she and others say, Macron should make key state visits early in his second term — to Moscow and to Kyiv — with other European leaders.  

While Macron has carried on the traditional French-German partnership considered an EU linchpin — first with Merkel and now her successor Olaf Scholz — he went solo in February to see President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, hoping to secure a peace commitment days before the Ukraine war.  

Last year, he surprised some by announcing that France’s Barkhane military operation in the Sahel would end and be folded into a broader EU one, called Takuba.  

“It was an effort to Europeanize France’s presence in the Sahel,” Ciulla said, “but it’s not very nice, not very collaborative, not to let your allies know.”    

But Macron’s long-held vision of “strategic autonomy” — strengthening the EU’s economic, technological and military independence — is gaining ground among one-time skeptics. This is especially true since the war in Ukraine began, with Germany, in particular, spectacularly boosting its military spending.  

“The way Germany changed its policy, the way sanctions [against Russia] were decided very quickly, it’s all about strategic autonomy at the end,” Ciulla said. “It’s about sovereignty and the capacity to act, and very quickly react.”  

June legislative elections in France may determine just how much leeway Macron has to continue pushing his European agenda. Both far-right Le Pen and far-left leader Jean-Luc Melenchon, another EU critic, hope to score significantly.  

More importantly, perhaps, will be how Macron fares in pushing through unpopular reforms, including boosting the retirement age from 62 to 65.  

“If he gets another yellow vest movement, that would be damaging” for Macron’s EU credentials, said Maillard of Jacques Delors, referring to massive popular protests that marked the president’s first term in office. “If you’re not able to manage your own backyard, obviously your leadership is decreased.” 

Macron is betting on another outcome.  

“This is his last term, and he wants to leave something to history,” Maillard added. “I think it will probably be on his European contribution.”
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