Although the German government has collapsed and is rapidly approaching snap elections in early 2025, Chancellor Olaf Scholz has chosen this opportunity to contact Russian President Vladimir Putin for the first time in two years and ask him to withdraw troops from Ukraine. requested to withdraw.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who led the so-called Progressive Coalition “traffic light” government of Social Democrats, Liberals and Greens and now faces a snap election in February after its collapse, made a rare appearance on Friday in Russia. I called the prime minister. Call for an end to the war in Ukraine.
The phone conversation lasted an hour, a German government spokesperson said, with Scholz spending time on the phone with Putin, condemning Russia's war against Ukraine, calling on the Kremlin to enter into negotiations and urging the Kremlin to withdraw its troops. He called for an end to the conflict. . Mr. Scholz told President Putin that Russia had not achieved its war objectives and should give up.
This is the first telephone conversation between the two men since December 2022, almost two years ago.
german newspaper die welt state In addition to calling on Russia to end the war, Scholz said on Germany's behalf he assured Putin of the country's “unwavering determination” to continue supporting Ukraine for as long as necessary. The timing of the call is remarkable, coming just before the G20 summit in Brazil this weekend. Scholz and Putin's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will also attend.
Putin had been scheduled to attend earlier, but he now has an outstanding international arrest warrant, making his visit much less likely.
Ukraine reacted badly to this call. President Volodymyr Zelensky called it It's a “Pandora's Box” moment that could lead to another conversation with the Russian leader. Zelenskyy said this is exactly what President Putin has wanted for a long time, and that reducing isolation is crucial for him.
Russia responded, with state media stating that its position had not fundamentally changed, and President Putin telling Scholz that Russia would enter into negotiations to “resolve the conflict” as long as all conditions were met. That's what he said. These are clearly unacceptable to Ukraine and its Western backers, but they nevertheless include Ukraine surrendering part of its territory to the Russian Federation and then becoming a “non-aligned” demilitarized state.
Western leaders now rarely publicly admit to having phone conversations with Russia, but in the early days of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, calls were fairly common from some European capitals. German Chancellor Scholz has occasionally called President Putin, but the frequency decreased over the course of 2022, with calls taking place in December of the same year until this week. France's Emmanuel Macron continued to talk to President Putin even after other leaders had given up, believing he could broker peace.
Macron later regretted not becoming more hawkish toward Russia sooner, eventually becoming one of Europe's most vocal supporters of the war to defend Ukraine. He supported heavier weapons shipments and provocative tactics when other NATO leaders warned of escalation.
It's also worth noting that Scholz's phone conversation with Putin on Friday came at the end of his time in power, after almost two years of silence. Mr. Scholz was leading a left-wing coalition, but the deal between the two parties collapsed last week over disagreements over funding and concerns about the return of U.S. President Donald Trump. A new government will be elected in Germany in February, with right-wing parties having an overwhelming lead in opinion polls.
