On October 16, German Prime Minister Olaf Scholz announced his readiness to discuss ways to resolve the conflict in Ukraine with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The German Chancellor made this statement while speaking in the Bundestag.
TASS quotes Scholz's words.
In his speech, the German Chancellor spoke in favor of holding a peace conference on Ukraine with the participation of the Russian Federation.
When we are asked whether we will speak with the Russian president, we answer yes, said the head of the German government.
He added that decisions cannot be made behind Ukraine’s back and without coordination with partners.
The German government cannot yet say anything definite about the German Chancellor’s plans to talk with the Russian President.
German Cabinet spokesman Steffen Hebestreit said at a briefing that Scholz had always made it clear that he was ready to call the Russian president whenever it was appropriate and appropriate.
I have nothing to tell you at this time about the specific planning of such a telephone call, ” added Heberstreit.
On October 1, the German publication Die Zeit, citing sources in the German government, reported that the German Chancellor plans to call the Russian President ahead of the G20 summit, which will take place in November.
The last time the head of the German government and the Russian president spoke on the phone was in December 2022.
The last face-to-face meeting between Scholz and Putin took place in Moscow on February 15, 2022.
Putin's press secretary Dmitry Peskov noted that the Russian president and the German chancellor currently have no common topics.