vladimir putin he has pushed germany out of the diplomatic driving seat over the ukraine conflict markov also took the lead in trying to negotiate a meeting between iran's president rouhani and the us president trump. it's less than a year since germany and france renewed their political viles by signing the our country to you know bilateral cooperation but in this political marriage president markov is increasingly seen as the one wearing the trousers. and the think tanks are beginning to talk. because of the new chancellor making space from a crawl without setting her own agenda. as part of that afghan treaty german and french m.p.'s held their 2nd joint session in berlin last week mccall sent his top diplomat for europe who found german foreign policy restraint unlike in france we're not used to coalitions we are in a system where we have more freedom of movement i would say more cassidy to be a giant in the current situation of the global crisis we see this is sometimes an advantage a french m.p. who was in the room also sees merkel's leadership qualities limited by her lack of polit