Scholz Resumes Phone Calls With Putin

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz resumed phone calls with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday after two years of official silence over Russia’s war on Ukraine.

• The phone call marked “the Kremlin leader’s first publicly announced conversation with the sitting head of a major Western power in nearly two years,” AP remarked.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy condemned the call, accusing Scholz of signaling soft negotiations with the Kremlin and opening a “Pandora’s box.”

Escalation: In the days after the call, Russia launched one of its heaviest air strikes on Ukraine.

https://twitter.com/donaldtusk/status/1858135219498258876

Talk only gives Putin hope of easing his international isolation. What is needed are concrete, strong actions that will force him to peace, not persuasion and attempts at appeasement, which he sees as a sign of weakness and uses to his advantage.
—Ukraine Foreign Ministry

Pressured by Trump: The return to the United States presidency of Donald Trump, who has promised to end the war upon resuming office, is pressuring Europeans to find a solution.

Deal with Germany: Unlike the U.S., Germany has a direct interest in gaining Putin’s favor. According to the Kremlin, Putin told Scholz that Russia was willing to consider fresh energy deals with Germany. While Germany has sent some military aid to Ukraine, it has repeatedly withheld and delayed critical weaponry in order to avoid overly upsetting Putin.

Germany’s cooperation with Russia goes beyond cheap energy. Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry suspects that the two countries have already made a deal to help each other achieve global dominance.

[D]id you know that Germany and Russia have probably already dealt with their most urgent differences? … I believe that Germany’s leaders may have already agreed to a deal with Russia, a modern Hitler-Stalin pact where Germany and Russia divide countries and assets between themselves.
—Gerald Flurry, 2008

Learn more: Read “France’s Deadly Ignorance About Germany.”