LAST UPDATE: 14.00
Germany does not expect concrete results from Chancellor Olaf Soltz’s meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin this week, but hopes to get an idea of what it hopes to achieve with military reinforcements on Ukraine’s borders, a German government source said on Sunday. according to Reuters.
Solz is scheduled to travel to Moscow on Tuesday to meet with Putin, the head of state for a second visit after his French counterpart Emanuel Macron, as part of feverish diplomatic meetings aimed at preventing a new Russian attack on Ukraine.
The source said Solz would make it clear to Putin that the Western partners were united in their position that any attack would provoke “painful, significant sanctions” on Russia.
“He will also emphasize that we are not just ready for dialogue, but we insist on de-escalating and halting the increase in troops, which can only be interpreted as a threat,” the source said.
Bild: Soltz talked to Merkel
“The task is to prevent a war in Europe,” government spokesman Stephen Heberstreet wrote on Twitter on Friday night.
We do not know if Soltz really has any influence on the Kremlin leader’s decision, Bild reports, but Olaf Soltz has been preparing for the meeting for days.
One of his advisers is also his predecessor in office. Scholz exchanged views with Angela Merkel, as reported by Bild am Sonntag.
The former chancellor probably knows the governor of Russia better than any other Western head of state, Bild notes, and has met with Putin several times – in good times and bad. He knows the power games that Putin likes to play with his counterpart, the German newspaper notes.
Solz, according to the same publication, also invited various experts on Russia to the Chancellery and exchanged views with others by telephone. Scholz’s reading includes the book “Inside Putin’s Head” by former “Financial Times” correspondent Andrew Jack, writes Welt am Sonntag.
Source: Capital

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