German Chancellor Olaf Scholz spoke Friday with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Scholz urged Putin to be open to negotiations with Ukraine, his office said.
The timeline here looks pathetic. Trump wins the election and suddenly we’re all interested in hearing what Putin has to say.
Maybe something good can come out of it. But my god does it look pathetic.
A historically weak Chansellor reaching out to a Russian despot who knows perfectly well his only real threat is being stabbed in the back by one of his own. Scholz has no bargaining power over Putin whatsoever.
Scholz governing coalition fell apart a week ago and that means new elections in Feburary. The problem for Scholz is that the defense minister Pistorius is much more popular then him. However Pistorius is also more hawkish on Russia, which their party the SPD is generally not. So Scholz needs support from his party to actually be the candidate. Putin rather has Scholz then any of the other realistic option apart from a government including the far right AFD. Hence making Scholz look like a peace candidate is in both Scholz and Putins interest.
Honestly I doubt anything real comes from this. Both Russia and Ukraine are talking since the war started. There are embassies in Russia allowing for easy communication with lower level diplomats all the time. This is just show.
Yeah, this is what I was referring to by historically weak. Parts of it anyway.
I can’t believe you can still get away with being a Russlandversteher in contemporary German politics. Then again, there’s a lot of things I struggle to believe about contemporary German politics…
The timeline here looks pathetic. Trump wins the election and suddenly we’re all interested in hearing what Putin has to say.
Maybe something good can come out of it. But my god does it look pathetic.
A historically weak Chansellor reaching out to a Russian despot who knows perfectly well his only real threat is being stabbed in the back by one of his own. Scholz has no bargaining power over Putin whatsoever.
Scholz governing coalition fell apart a week ago and that means new elections in Feburary. The problem for Scholz is that the defense minister Pistorius is much more popular then him. However Pistorius is also more hawkish on Russia, which their party the SPD is generally not. So Scholz needs support from his party to actually be the candidate. Putin rather has Scholz then any of the other realistic option apart from a government including the far right AFD. Hence making Scholz look like a peace candidate is in both Scholz and Putins interest.
Honestly I doubt anything real comes from this. Both Russia and Ukraine are talking since the war started. There are embassies in Russia allowing for easy communication with lower level diplomats all the time. This is just show.
Yeah, this is what I was referring to by historically weak. Parts of it anyway.
I can’t believe you can still get away with being a Russlandversteher in contemporary German politics. Then again, there’s a lot of things I struggle to believe about contemporary German politics…