Germany’s former chancellor Gerhard Schröder says he can nonetheless think about that his friendship with Russian President Vladimir Putin may contribute to ending the struggle in Ukraine.
“We have worked together sensibly for many years. Perhaps that can still help to find a negotiated solution, I don’t see any other way,” Schröder stated in an interview with dpa.
Schröder has been pals with Putin since his time as chancellor from 1998 to 2005 and continues to work for almost all Russian firms working the Nord Stream pipelines via the Baltic Sea. Although he has described the Russian assault on Ukraine as a “fatal mistake,” he has not renounced Putin.
The management of his Social Democratic Party has marginalized him because of this, however an expulsion process in opposition to him failed.
When requested why he’s sustaining his friendship with the Russian president regardless of tens of hundreds of deaths and Russian struggle crimes within the Ukraine struggle, Schröder replied, “It’s true that this is a dimension that is different.”
It had as soon as seemed as if his private relationship with Putin could possibly be useful in fixing a particularly tough political downside. “And that’s why I think it would be completely wrong to forget all the positive things that have happened between us in politics in the past. That’s not my style and I don’t do that either,” he stated.
Schröder was alluding to his mediation mission in March 2022 shortly after the Russian assault on Ukraine, when Schröder stated he first met then Ukrainian parliamentarian and present Defence Minister Rustem Umerov in Istanbul and travelled on to Moscow for talks with Putin. However, the initiative failed.
The Kremlin welcomed Schröder’s statements.
Good, constructive relations on a private degree like these between Schröder and Putin may assist to unravel issues, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted as saying by Russian news businesses on Thursday.
The Kremlin spokesman added that when it got here to these in energy in Germany right this moment, he didn’t see any willingness to finish the struggle in Ukraine.
Schröder additionally indicated that he’s in favour of a brand new try at mediation within the Ukraine-Russia battle on the authorities degree.
“France and Germany would have to take the initiative. It is obvious that the war cannot end with the total defeat of one side or the other,” the previous chancellor stated.
Schröder described hypothesis that Putin may begin a nuclear struggle or assault a NATO nation on the jap flank as “nonsense.”
In order to nip an escalation in the direction of such eventualities within the bud and stop the inhabitants from turning into extra nervous, critical thought have to be given to an answer to the battle along with help for Ukraine, he emphasised.
Germany’s present chancellor, Olaf Scholz, has not spoken to Putin on the cellphone since December 2022.
In an interview with the German every day Märkische Allgemeine revealed on Thursday, Scholz identified that there had been repeated discussions with Moscow about, for instance, the settlement on the export of Ukrainian grain, safety on the Zaporizhzhya nuclear energy plant and the alternate of prisoners.
“A number of countries, including Ukraine, are currently discussing at the security advisor level what something could look like that would lead to a peace process,” he stated. “But let me make one thing very clear: peace is possible at any time.”
“Putin just has to stop his barbaric campaign and withdraw troops,” Scholz asserted.
Source: www.anews.com.tr