Outsmarting Vladimir Putin
French President Emmanuel Macron keeps speaking with Vladimir Putin. By all accounts the meetings aren’t going anywhere. But Macron keeps talking with Putin nonetheless. Some observers on social media have labeled Macron naive for even bothering to try – but they’re missing the point entirely.
Let’s go ahead and presume that it’s impossible to get an increasingly incoherently deranged Putin to listen to reason. In such case, that’s not why Macron is speaking with Putin. It’s rather obvious that the longer Macron can keep Putin on the phone, the better the odds that Putin lets his guard down a bit and unwittingly lets something slip that he shouldn’t. Then Macron gets to share that information with NATO and Ukraine.
This is such an obvious basic strategy, it’s a real wonder why Macron’s critics on social media don’t see it. The police always try to get the hostage taker on the phone under the guise of a friendly dialogue, because it’s an easy way to gather intel on the hostage taker’s state of mind, position, and armament, even if there is no talking sense into him. What Macron is doing with Putin really isn’t much different.
