Olaf Scholz is on the phone with Vladimir Putin after a two-year break

After almost two years of radio silence, Chancellor Olaf Scholz spoke on the phone again with Russian President Vladimir Putin. According to information from the German Press Agency, the conversation lasted an hour.

In the phone call, Scholz called on Putin to withdraw his troops from Ukraine. “The Chancellor urged Russia to be willing to negotiate with Ukraine with the aim of a just and lasting peace,” said government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit after the hour-long conversation. Scholz also reaffirmed Germany’s unwavering determination to support Ukraine in its defense against Russian aggression for as long as necessary.

According to the Kremlin, Putin has insisted that Moscow’s security interests be taken into account in resolving the Ukraine conflict. Possible agreements would also have to be based on the new territorial realities, the Kremlin said in Moscow after the conversation. With the annexation of the Crimean peninsula in 2014 and in the course of the war of aggression that has been ongoing since 2022, Russia has created facts in Ukraine and counts around 20 percent of Ukraine as its national territory, which is hardly recognized internationally.

Scholz and Putin last spoke on the phone for an hour on December 2, 2022. The Chancellor is currently trying to hold a second Ukraine peace conference after a summit in Switzerland last summer, in which Russia could also take part. So far there is no date in sight for this. The West has largely shut down communication channels to Moscow because of the Russian attack on Ukraine, which began in February 2022.

The last time Scholz met Putin in person was a week before the Russian attack on Ukraine, during his inaugural visit to Moscow. Because of Corona, both of them sat at a huge oval table in the Kremlin, meters away from each other. After the invasion there were still individual phone calls, but then they broke off. This mainly had to do with the Russian conduct of the war in Ukraine and the lack of prospects for concrete results.

Scholz had repeatedly said in recent months that he was ready to talk to Putin. He just wants to find the right time. On Sunday, the Chancellor stated on ARD that this point could come “soon”. “Yes, I have decided to speak to the Russian president at the right time. But I am a responsible politician, I will not do it alone.” A conversation with Putin requires a lot of contacts and conversations with many others.

The timing of the conversation is likely to be related to the upcoming G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, which Scholz is heading to on Sunday. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is also expected there.

Putin himself canceled his participation in the summit on October 18 in order not to “disrupt the normal work of the forum,” which had other topics. There is an international arrest warrant against Putin from the World Criminal Court in The Hague for alleged war crimes in Ukraine. He would risk arrest in Brazil.

The G20 of the leading economic powers from all continents is the only discussion format in which Russia and the NATO states still sit at the same table at a high level. Scholz is not planning to talk to Lavrov there. According to those close to him, however, he will speak to Chinese President Xi Jinping about the war in Ukraine, who is considered Putin’s most important ally.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is not invited to the G20 summit. Scholz called him on Wednesday evening to talk about the military and humanitarian situation in Ukraine. It is quite possible that the Chancellor prepared Zelensky for the phone call with Putin.

“The Chancellor reiterated his ongoing and unwavering solidarity with Ukraine in the face of Russia’s ongoing aggression for almost 1,000 days,” said government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit afterwards. “He assured that Germany will continue to support Ukraine in the military area in close coordination with European and international partners.”

Shortly beforehand, Scholz had confirmed in the Bundestag that Germany would not deliver the Taurus cruise missiles with a range of 500 kilometers that Ukraine wanted to Ukraine.

After Donald Trump’s victory in the US presidential election, Russia once again signaled its fundamental willingness to engage in dialogue about Ukraine – including with Scholz. Moscow sees nervousness in the West regarding Ukraine. It was premature to now talk about changes in positions among the Europeans, they said. “But there are official statements from European representatives that talk about continuing their general line of providing all kinds of support. And in Russian this means pumping weapons into Ukraine to continue this war to the end,” Peskov said .

Trump announced during the election campaign that he would end the Ukraine war within a very short time through a deal with Russia. He didn’t give any details. Putin congratulated Trump on his election victory last week and appeared open to dialogue. At the same time, he emphasized that Trump is unpredictable and therefore it remains to be seen what will follow his announcements.

On Monday, Keml spokesman Peskov rejected a Washington Post report that Putin and Trump had spoken on the phone after the US election. “There was no conversation,” Peskov said. “It’s pure fiction, it’s just false information.” Russia is still open to talks. However, Putin did not want to be the first to call because it was not Russia but the West that had broken off contact.

Note: This article has been updated several times.