Politics

Despite a blizzard of diplomatic activity, America and Europe came no closer to ending Russia’s military threat to Ukraine. After talks in Moscow, Emmanuel Macron said Vladimir Putin had promised not to escalate the situation, but Russia denied that. In Washington, Joe Biden said a Russian invasion would prompt the cancellation of its Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline to Germany; Olaf Scholz, Germany’s new chancellor, was woollier. France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine were planning to meet in Berlin to discuss the Minsk accords on Ukraine’s breakaway region of Donbas, but that deal is unpopular with Ukrainians.