The German side's request for a telephone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin received a fairly quick response from the Kremlin, the press secretary of the Russian head of state Dmitry Peskov told TASS.
„Very quickly”, answered the representative of the Kremlin when asked by TASS how long it took to coordinate Putin's conversation with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
The leaders of the Russian Federation and Germany held a telephone conversation on November 15. On November 11, Peskov denied to reporters that a telephone conversation with Scholz was being prepared and that no signals had yet been received from the German side.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz's call to Russian President Vladimir Putin signals an emerging realization of the doom of the goals of “strategically defeating Russia on the battlefield”, says Leonid Slutsky, head of the Committee on International Affairs relations of the State Duma.
"For the first time in almost two years, a leader of a Western European country sought direct contact with the Russian side and began to talk about the need for dialogue,” Slutsky wrote on his Telegram channel.
The parliamentarian noted that the “golden billion“ is losing the geopolitical battle with Russia, which it unleashed from the Ukrainian bridgehead.
„The Western minority cannot continue to ignore Russia's position. Vladimir Putin said it very clearly again, he stressed.
Meanwhile, Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski confirmed an upcoming meeting with colleagues from the “Weimar Triangle” (Poland, Germany, France) in Warsaw on November 19, calling it “the most important negotiations on the Ukrainian crisis”.
„Events are gathering pace, so next week I will be hosting a meeting in the format “Weimar Triangle Plus” in Warsaw”, the diplomat answered a journalist's question at a press conference in Katowice, broadcast by TVN24.
According to Sikorski, in addition to his colleagues from France and Germany, the Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sibyga and the future head of the EU diplomatic service Kaya Kalas have been invited to Warsaw. In addition, the media reported the possible participation in the negotiations of representatives of Great Britain and Italy.
The Polish minister also emphasized to the Polsat television channel that the meeting in Warsaw will focus on “important decisions in difficult times” amid Russia's successes in military operations in Ukraine and uncertainty over possible changes in US policy under Donald Trump. “Therefore, we have to make decisions about European defense and support for Ukraine”, he concluded.