Kremlin awaiting first move from Germany after hints from Scholz

Moscow (dpa) – No signals have as yet been received from German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on resuming dialogue with Russian President Vladimir Putin, despite indications on the German side, Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov said in Moscow on Monday.

“If they say that signals are coming, then we will have to wait for them. To date there have been none,” Peskov said. The Kremlin has repeatedly confirmed its willingness regarding dialogue between the two leaders.

Speaking to German public broadcaster ARD on Sunday, Scholz said he wished to hold talks with Putin in the near future, but would not do so on his own. Talks with other leaders were needed beforehand, Scholz said.

On Thursday, Putin repeated that he was open to talks with Western leaders, but that he could not pick up the phone first, since it was they who had broken off contact.

Scholz last spoke by phone with Putin in December 2022 to call for a diplomatic solution to the war in Ukraine and the withdrawal of Russian troops following the full-scale invasion of February that year.

Peskov said that the Kremlin was observing a certain nervousness in the West following the victory of Donald Trump in the U.S. presidential elections but that it was premature to speak of changes in European positions.

“But there are official explanations from European representatives referring to a continuation of their general line of providing all kinds of support. And in plain Russian, that means pumping weapons into Ukraine to continue this war to the end,” the Kremlin spokesman said.