Kanzler Scholz erzählt, wie Telefonate mit Putin ablaufen

On Saturday, Chancellor Olaf Scholz answered questions from residents of his Potsdam constituency during a town hall meeting. He explained why he would continue to speak with the Russian president and described his conversations with Vladimir Putin: "Well, I spoke with him in Moscow before the war, at that strange long table, for about four hours, I think. And I've spoken with him several times since then. Always for quite a while. As for the conversations themselves, I think I can already reveal that they always remain polite. No one shouts on the other end of the phone, and I don't speak Russian. I tried to learn it once, for about eight hours at the adult education center, but apart from the alphabet, nothing stuck. He speaks German very well, though, so he occasionally switches to German or doesn't bother to have my statements translated." ``` Scholz further explained that he considers it important to talk to each other, even when opinions differ: “Nevertheless, I will continue to talk to him. Because I want to experience the moment when it’s possible to get out of this situation. And that’s impossible if we don’t talk to each other. […] In terms of substance, however, it must be said that some things have changed since the beginning of the war regarding what he says and what he wants to achieve. But nothing has changed regarding the one thing: that he simply wants to conquer a part of Ukrainian territory by force. And I think that’s what’s truly distressing, that despite the fact that there are so many losses on the Russian side, nothing has changed. I mean, we don’t know exactly how many soldiers have died. But it could well be 100,000. That’s quite a lot, especially when you compare it to other wars.” Scholz has spoken with Putin by telephone several weeks apart since the beginning of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine. The last meeting in early December was marked by mutual accusations. Scholz condemned the Russian attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure. Putin spoke of a "destructive line taken by Western states, including Germany."