Russia’s Putin, France’s Macron discuss Vienna talks

Provocative speculations about alleged Russian plans to invade Ukraine were in the focus of a telephone conversation between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron on Saturday, the Kremlin said in a statement after the two presidents’ talks, TASS reported.

"Additionally, Vladimir Putin and Emmanuel Macron discussed the situation linked to provocative speculations about an alleged Russian plan for the ‘invasion’ of Ukraine, to the accompaniment of the large-scale pumping of cutting-edge weapons into that country and the creation of conditions for potential aggressive actions by the Ukrainian military in Donbas," the statement says.

Putin and Macron discussed, in addition to Ukraine, in their telephone conversation how to preserve and implement the Iran nuclear deal, the Kremlin said.

"They touched upon the issue of the preservation and full implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPoA) on the Iranian nuclear program," the Russian president’s press service said.

The eighth round of talks on the removal of all anti-Iranian sanctions kicked off on Dec. 27 in the Austrian capital of Vienna and is one of lengthy rounds of talks. These days, participants are busy active drafting the text of the agreement and deciding on some controversial issues.

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