MOSCOW: The "frozen" state of relations between Russia and Germany benefits neither country, but it is Germany who suffers most he...
MOSCOW: The "frozen" state of relations between Russia and Germany benefits neither country, but it is Germany who suffers most here, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a ceremony ushering in new ambassadors of foreign states.
"The current ‘frozen’ state of relations with Russia, and not on our initiative, I want to stress this, is not beneficial, it is not beneficial either to us or to you. But first of all, in my opinion, to Germany," the Russian President said.
Putin recalled that Russia and Germany had been developing "pragmatic, business-like cooperation" for more than half a century.
"This has benefited both states, and, perhaps, not only us, but the entire European continent. Notably, energy has always been an attractive area of bilateral cooperation. For decades, our country had been supplying Germany with environmentally friendly gas fuel, oil, and other energy products, other raw energy materials reliably, without interruption, at affordable, reasonable prices. And this cooperation was literally undermined, including by sabotage on the Nord Streams," the President said.
On September 27, 2022, Nord Stream AG, the operator of the pipelines, reported "unprecedented destruction" that occurred "on three strings of the Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 offshore gas pipelines." On September 26, Swedish seismologists registered two explosions on offshore routes of the pipelines. After that, Russia’s Prosecutor General's Office launched a probe into the act of international terrorism. Germany, Denmark and Sweden announced their own national investigations, but refused to involve Russia in them.
The Russian leader also said that, in addition to political and economic ties, relations between Russia and Germany that had previously developed so successfully in the scientific, educational, cultural and humanitarian areas, as well as ties between the people of the countries themselves, have been interrupted.
"Russia, I want to stress this, has always advocated building Russian-German relations on the principles of equality, mutual benefit, respect for each other’s interests. I repeat: such relations are important not only for the two countries, but for the whole of Europe," Putin concluded.
On June 21, 2023, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced that Russia had signed off on the appointment of Alexander Lambsdorff as the German Ambassador to Moscow. Geza Andreas von Geyr, the previous ambassador, served in the post for four years before leaving Moscow at the end of July. Lambsdorff is considered a leading foreign policy expert in the Free Democratic Party (FDP) of Germany. He is known for his harsh criticism of Russia. In particular, the FDP representative spoke about the importance of maintaining the "unity of the West" in matters of supporting Ukraine. In his opinion, representatives of Western countries should prevent "Russia from increasing pressure on its neighbors.".
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