BERLIN, Jun 6 German Chancellor Olaf Scholz wants to call again with Russian President Vladimir Putin, the N-TV news portal reports on Tuesday.
«Due to the course of the war, I did not consider the current moment to be suitable (for a conversation with Putin — ed.)», the portal quotes Scholz from an excerpt from an interview with the RTL television channel.
According to the Chancellor, he «hadn't spoken» to his Russian colleague for a long time, but he intends to do it again.
In the past few months, Scholz has been regularly declaring his desire to talk to Putin, but the conversation never comes to a head.
The last time the leaders of the countries spoke by phone was in December.
Earlier, the press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov, answering the question whether Vladimir Putin is ready to communicate with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, said that he did not know about the intentions of the German politician to call the Russian leader, but it is necessary to talk, and Putin is open for dialogue with to protect the interests of the Russian Federation.
Russia launched a special military operation in Ukraine on February 24, 2022. Russian President Vladimir Putin called its goal «the protection of people who have been subjected to bullying and genocide by the Kyiv regime for eight years.» He noted that the special operation was a forced measure, Russia «was left no chance to do otherwise, security risks were created such that it was impossible to respond by other means.»