Emmanuel Macron Challenges Putin on Syria and Gay Rights<br />By ALISSA J. RUBIN and AURELIEN BREEDENMAY 29, 2017<br />VERSAILLES, France — France’s newly elected president, Emmanuel Macron, came out of his first meeting with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia on Monday with a message of stark challenge, promising French military reprisals for any use of chemical weapons by Russia’s allies in Syria<br />and saying he would closely monitor the curtailing of civil rights for gay people in Chechnya.<br />Mr. Macron made a point of opening the news conference by summarizing the long cultural ties between the two countries in literature, culture and philosophy and by noting<br />that "no essential issue can be handled today without talking with Russia." The meeting was Mr. Macron’s first with the Russian leader, and he appeared intent on introducing himself as a new factor for Russia to take into consideration on the European stage.<br />However, Mr. Macron minced no words when it came to responding to a question about why his<br />campaign had shut out two Russian-associated news organizations, Russia Today and Sputnik.<br />Mr. Macron said that he had discussed the reports of collective punishment of gay men in Chechnya with Mr. Putin and<br />that they had agreed on a "very regular monitoring" of the situation.<br />With Mr. Putin standing beside him, he accused two news organizations with ties to Russia<br />of acting as "organs of influence" rather than as true outlets for journalism.<br />The exhibition celebrates the ties between Russia and France forged 300 years ago by Peter the<br />Great when he visited France after encouraging diplomatic ties between the two countries.
