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Trip to RussiaPutin receives Schröder in the Kremlin
Former Chancellor Schröder is friends with Putin and worked as a lobbyist for Russian energy companies after his time in office (archive photo).
picture alliance/dpa/POOL SPUTNIK KREMLIN/AP / Alexei Druzhinin
Vladimir Putin wants to see his friend Gerhard Schröder as a mediator for talks between the EU and Moscow. Germany clearly rejects it. That doesn't stop the ex-Chancellor from traveling to Russia. The Kremlin chief now welcomes him for a “good” one-on-one conversation.
According to the Kremlin, Russian President Vladimir Putin met with former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder for a one-on-one meeting. “Yes, they met. It was a good conversation,” Putin's foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov told the Interfax agency. He was unable to provide any information about the content or possible prospects for negotiations between Russia and the European Union. The meeting therefore took place in the Kremlin in Moscow.
Putin recently named Schröder as a possible mediator for talks between the EU and Russia. The 82-year-old is friends with the Kremlin leader and worked as a lobbyist for Russian energy companies after his time in government. The federal government and other European governments clearly rejected the proposal.
The EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas then warned that the debate about the selection of an envoy for possible Ukraine peace talks with Russia would continue. “It is a trap that Russia wants to lure us into,” she said at the end of May. The Russian tactic is to discuss who will speak to Russia and then Russia to select who is suitable and who is not. Kallas also emphasized that negotiations are always a team effort and that, in her view, a negotiation strategy is needed before talking about people.
At a press conference with representatives of foreign, including Western, media on Thursday, Putin reiterated his alleged willingness to engage in dialogue with Europe to end the war. However, only neutral “people” who “you can trust” would be considered as intermediaries. He was “astonished” that his plea for Schröder as a mediator was wildly discussed in Germany. It's not about whether Schröder is his friend or not; the ex-chancellor is a statesman who stands up for Germany's interests and defends his own positions. Germany and Europe are not neutral because of the arms deliveries to Ukraine. Relations between the EU and Russia have been severely strained by the Russian war against neighboring Ukraine, which has been ongoing since 2022.
Sources used: uzh/dpa
