First meeting between Scholz and Putin in two years

“German Chancellor Olaf Scholz spoke on the phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin for an hour on Friday,” the source said. This is the first exchange between the two leaders since December 2022. The Kremlin has not yet communicated about this telephone interview.

Germany will not leave Ukraine ‘alone’ against Russian aggressor, Scholz promises

President Putin has not spoken with most Western leaders since 2022, when the EU and the United States imposed massive sanctions against Russia after the invasion of Ukraine. A number of Western leaders – Joe Biden, Emmanuel Macron… -, with the notable exception of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, refuse to speak to the Russian president. At the beginning of November, Vladimir Putin regretted that Western leaders had “stopped” calling him. “If one of them wishes to resume contacts, I have always said it and I want to repeat it: we have nothing against that,” he said at the Valdai forum (Russia).