Pas de dîner pour Poutine…
Sign of a Chill : E.U. Doesn’t Set Table for Putin - NYTimes.com
▻http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/29/world/europe/putin-russia-european-union.html
President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia has for years trumpeted grand ambitions for Moscow’s relations with the European Union, pushing to break down visa barriers and urging the creation of what he calls a “harmonious economic community stretching from Lisbon to Vladivostok.”
On a visit to the Brussels headquarters of the 28-nation bloc on Tuesday, however, Mr. Putin did not even get dinner. That customary courtesy was pulled from a sharply curtailed program — a small sign of the way escalating tensions over Ukraine have scrambled even basic rituals of diplomacy, chilled relations between Moscow and Brussels, and taken some of the shine off Mr. Putin’s image as a leader who can turn any crisis, even the mayhem in Syria, to his advantage.
Sinon, sur ce coup…
Mr. Putin added his own characteristic twist on Tuesday, needling European Union officials for visiting an encampment of protesters in the center of Kiev. “Just imagine how our European partners would react during the crisis in, say, Greece or Cyprus if our foreign minister joined anti-European rallies there,” he said.
C’est bien dans son style, mais c’est finalement plutôt gentil pour décrire une ingérence caractérisée…