Expert: Why Friedrich Merz should speak to Putin

When Olaf Scholz called Wladimir Putin on the phone, the conversation always went off. The Russian president held endless monologues about the injustice that Russia had experienced by the West and why the military approach in Ukraine was justified. The German Chancellor tried to keep against this fairy tale in the few breathing rooms, referred to the European position and appealed to Putin to give in. In the end, they diverge without success.

It should be the main reason why Friedrich Merz has avoided the exchange with Putin since taking office. The man who has made foreign policy into a chancellor, constantly travels to European capitals and regularly calls with his international counterparts or received them – he had no direct contact with Moscow.

But would a conversation make sense at all? Yes, says Christian Mölling from the Brussels Thinktank European Policy Center in the current episode of the star– s “Die Lage -International”.

“You could argue that it has the disadvantage that you legitimize Putin,” said the political scientist. But this is currently “without alternative” than opposite in Moscow, with which the Ukraine War would have to be negotiated: “There is no hope of a revolution or a coup d’état.”

Conversely, Merz could use a phone call to set a “communication contra point”: “You can clear this point without being driven by the opposition or parts of your coalition partner.” Merz could also prevent allegations that the Federal Government is locking itself against talks with the Kremlin and thus preventing negotiations for an armistice.

However, you shouldn’t make any illusions, warns Mölling. Real progress in a search for an end to the Ukraine conflict is not to be expected. “It is unable to prove that negotiations are in war,” says Mölling. Even if this is repeatedly propagated: “This refers to a historical phase of the Cold War, which was not a war in the real sense and was not shot in.”

At the same time, Mölling warned against going into a conversation with Putin with too much self -overestimation. To go to the phone with the thought that the Russian president can be persuaded to give in, he considers “the worst thing you can do”.

According to the security experts, a different measure would need a different measure for a new dynamic in the Ukraine War. The “only powerful signal” could only come from Washington and should be: “We have moved the deadline forward, the 50 days have just converted in 20 days, we are now starting with a new delivery of weapons to Ukraine. And we only stop when the topic has ended in such a way that the Ukraine has restored its sovereignty.”

US President Donald Trump had put Putin a 50-day culture last week in which he has to come to an armistice with Ukraine.