The Kremlin said this Sunday that Vladimir Putin remains open to contacts with his German counterpart, Olaf Scholz, after statements by the German chancellor that he was available to speak again by phone with the Russian leader.
“Putin has been and remains open to contacts,” Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted as saying by the Spanish news agency EFE, adding that no talks with Scholz have been scheduled so far.
The last conversation between the two leaders took place almost two months ago, on December 2, 2022, in a telephone conversation that lasted about an hour, time that will have served for Scholz to ask Putin for a diplomatic solution to the situation in Ukraine and withdraw troops from that country, Berlin reported at the time.
Moscow reported that Putin drew Scholz’s attention to the West’s “destructive” policy of “arming” Ukraine and training its military, prompting kyiv to drop the idea of negotiating with Moscow.
In an interview published today in a German newspaper, the Chancellor said that he will continue to keep the lines of communication open with the Russian president, defending the need to maintain dialogue, despite acknowledging the little success of the talks with the Russian leader.
While not “undelicate in tone”, Scholz said they showed Putin’s “unacceptable” intention to forcibly incorporate parts of Ukraine into Russia.
In the interview, Scholz said that these talks also served to address specific issues, such as the export of Ukrainian cereals or the safety of the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant.
Source: TSF
