Kremlin rejects Scholz offer: “German politicians should make that clear once and for all”

Created: 2022-12-14, 5:56 p.m

By: Bettina Menzel

Chancellor Scholz had given Moscow the prospect of resuming economic cooperation if Russia ended the Ukraine war.

Moscow is now responding to the offer.

• Moscow

  rejects

  Chancellor Scholz

  's offer: No resumption of economic cooperation.

• This

  news ticker on diplomatic developments

  in the Ukraine war is constantly updated.

Berlin - After almost ten months of war, Olaf Scholz (SPD) sees the strategy of Russian President Vladimir Putin as a failure, as the German Chancellor said in a government statement in the Bundestag on Wednesday.

At the same time, he promised Ukraine further support as long as it was necessary.

In a speech on the anniversary of the Committee on Eastern European Economic Relations on Monday, the Chancellor had previously condemned Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine, but offered Moscow to resume economic cooperation if the war ended.

The Russian Foreign Ministry responded on Wednesday.

Moscow resolutely rejects Chancellor Scholz's offer

In a statement on its website, the Russian Foreign Ministry referred to the German Chancellor's speech to the Committee on Eastern European Economic Relations, in which Scholz promised Moscow a resumption of bilateral cooperation to end Russia's war against Ukraine.

"But a Russia that ends the war and citizens in Russia who strive for a different future for themselves also need the opportunity to start economic cooperation again in a different time," said Scholz on Monday said.

"We will not ask for anything, and politicians in Germany should make that clear once and for all," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in response to Scholz's speech on Wednesday.

At the same time, the ministry in Moscow blamed Scholz for the break in economic and energy cooperation between the two countries.

"Nor did the head of government of the Federal Republic of Germany explain why Berlin so bashfully and cowardly refrained from investigating the sabotage of the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 pipelines, which cut off the German economy from cheap Russian natural gas," it said.

Scholz's omissions testified to the limitations of German politics, the statement said.

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