The Putin-Soltz meeting on Ukraine and European security is underway

The meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Olaf Solz is underway in the Kremlin, following the announcement of the withdrawal of some Russian troops from the border with Ukraine amid tensions between Russia and the West.

“Unfortunately, we will spend a lot of time today on the issue of the situation in Europe, on security and on the talks that are taking place on this issue, especially on Ukraine,” Putin said at the start of the meeting. images broadcast on Russian public television.

“It is clear that we now have to talk about the difficult security situation in Europe,” said Solz, adding that he was “pleased” to be able to hold these talks.

“The most important thing is that we can work on our relationship through good discussions with each other,” he added.

Addressing the German chancellor before the talks began, President Putin stressed that Russian-German energy cooperation is a priority for Moscow, which considers Berlin one of its main partners.

Putin stressed that Russia’s gas exporter is a reliable supplier of energy.

At the start of their talks, the two men sat at a six-meter-long table, an anti-Covid sanitary measure taken by the Kremlin against Putin’s foreign guests who have refused to comply with Russian protocol.

Like French President Emmanuel Macron last week, today Soltz refused to take a Russian PCR test before the talks, choosing to have the test done by a German embassy doctor on the plane after landing, before even disembarking.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peshkov said the social distance between the leaders of Germany and Russia should be greater than usual. “But this will not affect the nature of the meeting, its content or its duration,” Peshkov said.

The talks, he added, will be “extensive”.