MOSCOW, 8 Feb. The Kremlin denied the Financial Times information about the «deal» between Vladimir Putin and Emmanuel Macron on Ukraine. The day before, a five-hour meeting of Russian and French leaders took place, the central topic of discussion was security issues on the continent. After that, the FT published material that the presidents agreed on a set of measures to de-escalate in Eastern Europe, in particular, the withdrawal of the Russian military from Belarus after the completion of the exercises.
"Moscow and Paris could not conclude any deals. This is simply not possible because France is both a member of the EU and the EU Presidency. France is also a member of NATO, where France does not have the leadership <…>. Therefore, the newspaper simply wrote incorrectly & # 34;, — commented Putin's press secretary Dmitry Peskov.
He added that the Russian contingent would return from Belarus to their places of permanent deployment anyway. «No one has ever said that <…> the troops will remain on the territory of Belarus, there was no talk of this,» the Kremlin spokesman recalled. He also noted that he had not heard that Putin, in a conversation with Macron, agreed not to hold new military maneuvers near Ukraine. reaction forces of the Union State. At the first stage (until February 9), the organizers will redeploy and create groupings of troops. On the second (February 10-20), joint Belarusian-Russian exercises «Allied Resolve — 2022» will be held to repel external aggression, as well as counter terrorism. This caused concern in some Western countries. In particular, the Speaker of the Lithuanian Parliament, Victoria Cmilyte-Nilsen, called the maneuvers a show of force that could lead to an escalation around Ukraine. Fears that Russian soldiers would not leave the territory of Belarus were also expressed by the President of Poland, Andrzej Duda. Where Moscow and Minsk are deploying troops