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PARIS, May 30-- Despite real and persistent disagreements, Monday's meeting between the French and Russian presidents has marked the reopening of firm and pragmatic dialogue between Paris and Moscow after an era of distrust in recent years, analysts said. Even as thorny issues such as Crimea, Ukraine and Syria were discussed by Emmanuel Macron and Vladimir Putin, the French and Russian presidents laid the groundwork for future relations between their two countries which were strongly strained of late, experts commented. SYMBOLIC VISIT Last October, Putin had cancelled his visit to France after the French presidential office had made it known he was not welcome after a new Russian veto within the UN Security Council and the continuation of airstrikes east of the Syrian city of Aleppo. The two men met in Versailles, at the Grand Trianon palace, in order to inaugurate the exhibition: "Peter the Great, a Tsar in France, 1717," observing the 300th anniversary of the opening of the Russian embassy in Paris. The then-emperor had come to the seven-year-old King Louis XV, seeking the friendship of France in order to counteract the influence of Sweden and Austria. Hadrien Desuin, a specialist in international and defense issues, said Macron in receiving Putin sent "a very strong diplomatic signal to the rest of the world. It reminded the United States that France is not falling into line," he said. Describing this meeting as "extremely important," Russia-specialist historian specialized in Russia Helene Carrere d'Encausse said: "The new French president is in the process of restarting a relationship between Paris and Moscow which had been interrupted." | 
