Europe’s divisions over Putin

Macron has spoken repeatedly with Putin, to little obvious effect. [View in browser]( [Bloomberg]( Follow Us [Get the newsletter]( What’s the point of talking to Vladimir Putin? It’s a question that divides European leaders amid the terrible human and economic costs of Russia’s war in Ukraine. Advocates of diplomacy stress the need to halt the fighting to save lives and ease a potential global food crisis triggered by Russian blockades of Ukraine’s grain ports. Soaring energy prices as the European Union seeks to break dependence on Russia’s oil and gas add to political pressures at home. Opponents say engagement amounts to talking to a war criminal whose denial of any invasion plans showed his word is worthless. Why negotiate with a blackmailer? Key reading: - [Ukraine Plays Down Grains Corridor Hope, Warns of ‘Catastrophe’]( - [Merkel Warns of Isolating Russia After Putin’s ‘Big Mistake’]( - [Europe Considers Aid Plan To Help Tackle Africa Food Crisis]( - [Shock of War Threatens Lasting Consequences on Global Economy]( - Follow our rolling coverage of the war [here]( The tensions are palpable and geographic. French President Emmanuel Macron’s call not to “humiliate” Russia earned rebukes from Ukraine and rueful head-shaking from the EU’s eastern states that remember Moscow’s rule in the former Communist bloc. Macron has spoken repeatedly with Putin, to little obvious effect. Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who warned yesterday that isolating Russia isn’t possible, was also phoning the Russian president to urge a ceasefire until Putin stopped taking her calls, as [Arne Delfs]( reports. Putin has tied a resumption of grain exports to a lifting of crippling sanctions on his economy. His foreign minister is in Turkey today for talks on restarting shipments. Ukraine wasn’t invited, according to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. Russia shows no sign of abandoning attempts to annex parts of eastern Ukraine. The Ukrainian leader says he seeks victory on the battlefield while remaining open to peace talks with Putin. For the Kremlin, the lesson of Putin’s 2014 seizure of Crimea is that diplomacy eventually lets him keep what he can take. Merkel and Putin at a Libyan peace conference in Berlin on Jan. ​​​​19, 2020. Photographer: Adam Berry/Getty Images Click [here]( to sign up for our Equality Newsletter that runs tomorrow and share this newsletter with others. They can sign up [here](. Global Headlines Another gamble | Fresh from surviving a revolt by his own party, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson [plans]( to press ahead with legislation allowing him to unilaterally override parts of the Brexit deal relating to Northern Ireland, [Ellen Milligan]( reports. The move would please the most fervently anti-European sections of his party, while angering the EU, its member states like France and Ireland, and US President Joe Biden. - Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin said the UK has [shown]( “bad faith” in how it’s approached the part of the Brexit treaty dealing with Northern Ireland. - This week’s rebellion showed that more than 40% of Johnson’s Conservative lawmakers think he should go. [Read]( who the main contenders to replace him could be. Few convictions | A year and a half after Donald Trump’s die-hard supporters overran the US Capitol, prosecutors have scored relatively few convictions and face growing [pressure]( to target the former president and his allies. The Justice Department has won about 50 felony guilty pleas for the most serious attack on American democracy in the modern era, but the only charges brought against Trump aides have been for failing to respond to demands for information. Preemptive strike | Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro [cast doubt]( on the legitimacy of Biden’s 2020 election victory, two days before the leaders were scheduled to meet at the Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles. In televised remarks, Bolsonaro revived his claim that there was widespread fraud in the US vote that his close ally, Trump, lost to Biden. Bolsonaro himself faces a difficult bid for re-election in October. Best of Bloomberg Opinion - [Britain’s Conservatives Need to Find a New Leader: Editorial]( - [In Oil Markets, the Dollar Is the World’s Problem: Javier Blas]( - [Hard Lessons From 100 Days of the Ukraine War: Leonid Bershidsky]( Neighborly threat | Despite a lockdown since the end of April, daily Covid-19 cases have been trending up in Dandong, a Chinese city of about 2.2 million people on the border with North Korea. Officials say they can’t figure out where persistent new infections are coming from — and suspect the wind blowing in from their [secretive]( neighbor. Explainers you can use - [Meet the Guptas, Symbols of South African Corruption]( - [What Is Behind Vietnam’s Latest Anti-Corruption Fight]( - [How a Battery Metals Squeeze Puts EV Future at Risk]( Carbon threat | The Democratic Republic of Congo’s plan to auction oil exploration blocks next month threatens to disrupt some of the most important carbon sinks globally and could jeopardize a $500 million forest preservation agreement. Protecting the world’s biggest [peatlands]( and the wider Congo Basin tropical rainforest was a landmark agreement at last year’s COP26 climate conference in Glasgow. Bloomberg TV and Radio air Balance of Power with [David Westin]( weekdays from 12 to 1 p.m. ET, with a second hour on Bloomberg Radio from 1 to 2 p.m. ET. You can watch and listen on Bloomberg channels and online [here]( or check out prior episodes and guest clips [here](. News to Note - India is coming under fire in the Middle East for [derogatory remarks]( about Prophet Muhammad made by members of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, sparking online calls for boycotts in the region. - Macron’s party and its allies could lose their outright [majority]( in this month’s French legislative elections as support for a rival left-wing grouping grows, according to latest polls. - Vietnam’s police [detained]( former Health Minister Nguyen Thanh Long, one of the highest-ranking government officials to be swept up in graft investigations. - Thousands of truck drivers in South Korea have gone on strike at major ports and container depots, posing the [latest threat]( to strained global-supply chains. - Skier Eileen Gu’s decision to support the US bid to host a Winter Olympics sparked fierce debate in China over the American-born athlete’s [split loyalties](. - Pakistan ended Saturday as a work day for state employees under a raft of energy-saving measures to ease fuel shortages that have triggered [rolling blackouts](. And finally ... They once sat atop the thrones of global soccer’s highest governing bodies, but today Ex-FIFA boss Sepp Blatter and his former heir apparent, Michel Platini, are set to appear in a Swiss court [accused]( of corruption. As [Hugo Miller]( explains, the case revives past scandals immediately ahead of this year’s controversial World Cup in Qatar. Both men deny wrongdoing. Blatter and Platini after a vote to decide on the FIFA presidency in Zurich on May 29, 2015. Photographer: Michael Buholzer/AFP/Getty Images Like getting this newsletter? [Subscribe to Bloomberg.com]( for unlimited access to trusted, data-driven journalism and subscriber-only insights. You received this message because you are subscribed to Bloomberg's Balance of Power newsletter. [Unsubscribe]( | [Bloomberg.com]( | [Contact Us]( [Ads Powered By Liveintent]( | [Ad Choices]( Bloomberg L.P. 731 Lexington, New York, NY, 10022