Angela Merkel, the former Chancellor of Germany, once again justified friendly relations with Putin by the “necessity” to buy gas cheaper.
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I would prefer that gas be imported from the UK and Norway, as we have done in the past. Or the Netherlands. But they were gone. The question for us was: is LNG more expensive by a third or cheaper Russian gas?, Merkel said in an interview with Die Zeit newspaper.
She also again came out in defense of her policy in defending her policy towards Russia. It was the right policy, despite the war in Ukraine, she believes.
I tried to prevent this situation with what was at my disposal. The fact that it didn’t work is no proof that the attempt was wrong, Merkel said.
She also believes that efforts to resolve the conflict in eastern Ukraine after the occupation of Crimea in 2014 — the so-called Minsk agreements agreed by Kiev, Moscow, Berlin and Paris — are also correct.
Her December comment that the agreements gave Ukraine “precious time” to “become stronger” was rebuffed in Moscow.
The Russian authorities saw in it a reason to assert that not only Ukraine, but also Germany and France were not going to comply with the agreements.
It turns out that they also deceived us,” the Russian dictator Putin commented on Merkel’s words at the time.
Now the ex-chancellor has again stated that she considers the attempts of a diplomatic settlement of the conflict in 2014 to be true. When asked how, in her opinion, the war in Ukraine could end, Merkel replied that she did not want to comment on it. At the same time, she urged to think over a future scenario in which negotiations are possible.
She urged not to rule out the possibility of negotiations between Ukraine and Russia to end the war, writes Die Welt.
It would be important for me that we do not look too narrowly, and if someone, like the former head of the Munich Security Conference, Wolfgang Ischinger, says that we need to think about the possibility of negotiations, we should not immediately hiss. It is necessary that people who are concerned about how everything will end up can speak out – not all of them agree with the path, Merkel said.
Source: Racurs
I am David Wyatt, a professional writer and journalist for Buna Times. I specialize in the world section of news coverage, where I bring to light stories and issues that affect us globally. As a graduate of Journalism, I have always had the passion to spread knowledge through writing.