Putin Talks With German Chancellor, Breaking Ice With the West

The hourlong call centered on what German officials said was a push to end the war in Ukraine. It was the first in two years between Mr. Putin and Chancellor Olaf Scholz

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia spoke by phone for an hour on Friday, the first discussion between Mr. Putin and a sitting leader of a large Western country since late 2022.

German authorities said the call centered on prospects for ending the war in Ukraine.

The Kremlin confirmed the conversation and said Mr. Scholz initiated the call.

Mr. Scholz called on Mr. Putin to end the war, contending that Russia had not achieved its goals after almost three years, according to the German government’s summary of the call. Mr. Scholz condemned Russian attacks on civilian infrastructure and assured Mr. Putin that Germany would continue to assist Ukraine.

Mr. Scholz also told Mr. Putin he believes that the deployment of North Korean troops to assist Russia in Ukraine amounts to a serious escalation of the conflict, according to the summary.

Despite Mr. Scholz’s apparent criticism of Russia’s invasion, the call suggests that contact between the Kremlin and western powers may increase, following the election last week of Donald J. Trump in the American presidential election.

Mr. Trump has expressed skepticism over continued American aid to Ukraine and has promised to push for immediate peace talks, injecting new uncertainty into the West’s support for Ukraine’s war effort.

According to the Kremlin, Mr. Putin told his German counterpart that any peace deal in Ukraine must be based on “new territorial realities and, most importantly, address the root causes of the conflict.”

Mr. Putin has repeatedly used these euphemisms to signal that Russia will not hand over Ukrainian territory it has captured and will demand guarantees of Ukrainian neutrality — for instance, an agreement that Ukraine would not join NATO.

Mr. Putin told Mr. Scholz that he is open to resuming peace talks with Kyiv on those terms, the Kremlin said.

Christian Mölling, a former security expert at the German Council of Foreign Relations, said the possibility that Mr. Trump could try to negotiate peace between Russia and Ukraine is a possible reason for the timing of the call. “The Europeans are worried that Trump could negotiate over their heads,” he said. “They want to make sure they are at the table too.”

But Mr. Mölling warned that such a call also carries risks. “Each side will use the call to strengthen their own narrative,” he said, noting that Mr. Putin can say it shows the Europeans have no choice but to talk.

In Russia, Pro-Kremlin commentators also presented the call as evidence of the West’s failure to isolate Russia.

“The reason for the call — Scholz has elections coming up and voters are strongly demanding that Germany moves toward peace, and not war,” Sergei Markov, a Moscow political analyst and former Kremlin adviser, wrote on his Telegram channel. “We await other calls from Western leaders.”

The German chancellor spoke with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine before the call with Mr. Putin, and he planned to call Mr. Zelensky again to update him. Mr. Scholz’s spokesman said the outreach was tightly coordinated with the G7 partners.

In his nightly address in Kyiv, Mr. Zelensky called Mr. Scholz’s decision to speak with Mr. Putin “a Pandora’s box.”

“Now there may be other conversations, other calls,” he said. “Just a lot of words. And this is exactly what Putin has been wanting for a long time: it is extremely important for him to weaken his isolation, Russia’s isolation, and to conduct ordinary negotiations that will not end in anything.”

The call could also help Mr. Scholz domestically. Facing early elections in February Mr. Scholz is dealing with powerful political parties outside the political mainstream that demand negotiations with Russia.

Mr. Scholz had said in October that he was open to resuming direct communication with Mr. Putin, but Dmitry S. Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, dismissed the idea several times, saying that there was no reason for a call, according to Russian media.

“We are hearing words coming from Berlin — Scholz’s words about his readiness to open a dialogue,” Mr. Peskov told reporters on Oct. 19. “These are important words, because just a short time ago Germany was among the countries of the collective West that categorically rejected any contacts with Putin.”.

Since then, Mr. Scholz has seen his governing coalition splinter. Mr. Scholz’s Social Democratic party trails its largest mainstream rival, the Christian Democrats, badly in the polls ahead of the February elections.

But those two parties have largely agreed on continued support for Ukraine, even as surging populist parties on the far left and the far right have called for Germany to end its support for Kyiv. The call comes as Mr. Scholz and other world leaders are getting ready to meet in Brazil for the G20 Summit starting on Monday.

Mr. Putin, who used to participate in G20 summits, had stated in October that he would not attend this year. He is subject to arrest because Brazil is a signatory to the International Criminal Court, which last year issued an arrest warrant for Mr. Putin for war crimes involving the abduction and deportation of Ukrainian children.

Oleg Matsnev contributed reporting.

Our Coverage of the War in Ukraine

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