The last telephone conversation between Chancellor Scholz and Russian President Putin took place on December 2, 2022. Is it now time to pick up the conversation again?
A clear majority of Germans would like Chancellor Olaf Scholz to speak to Russian President Vladimir Putin again after almost two years of radio silence. In a survey by the opinion research institute YouGov on behalf of the German Press Agency, 59 percent were in favor of a telephone conversation between the two. Only 26 percent are against it, 15 percent did not provide any information.
The desire for such a conversation is particularly great in East Germany. There it was supported by 68 percent of those surveyed and only rejected by 19 percent.
Scholz and Putin last spoke on the phone on December 2, 2022. Afterwards, the Chancellor repeatedly made it clear that he could imagine resuming the conversation. There is speculation that a phone call could take place before the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro on November 18th and 19th. Russia is taking part in this, although perhaps not Putin himself.
For several weeks now, the Chancellor has been increasingly campaigning for another peace conference, in which Russia will also take part. Putin was not invited to the first peace summit in Switzerland in June.
On Friday, Scholz will meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Berlin for the third time in five weeks. This is also likely to be about efforts to find a peace solution, but also about continued military support for Ukraine.
The Germans are divided on the question of whether Ukraine should give up part of its territory in order to make peace with Russia. 39 percent say she shouldn’t give away an inch. On the other hand, 22 percent believe that Ukraine should forego the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea, which was annexed by Russia in 2014.
Another 23 percent even advocate that, in addition to Crimea, Kiev should also give up areas that have been occupied by Russia since the invasion in February 2022. Overall, 45 percent are in favor of a territorial waiver.
There is also disagreement over the question of whether Ukraine should be allowed to fire long-range Western weapons deep into Russian territory. 42 percent are more for it and 43 percent are more against it.
The Ukrainian president has long been demanding such permission from Western allies. Scholz sees this skeptically. Unlike the USA, Great Britain and France, Germany has not delivered any long-range weapons in the first place. Scholz does not want to provide the “Taurus” cruise missile with a range of 500 kilometers because he fears that Germany and NATO could then be drawn into the war.
