‘Really strange strategy’: Senior European officials facepalm over Scholz’s Putin call
"It is very difficult for me to understand this," says Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis.
European officials hit out at German Chancellor Olaf Scholz for his Friday phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Speaking on the sidelines of a meeting in Brussels on Monday, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said Scholz’s decision to call Putin is “a really strange strategy.”
“Why are we doing this? It is very difficult for me to understand this … When we are not providing, we are being slow, we are being weak, and then you call, what does a person like Putin, what does a person think about it? Well keep calling, and I will keep attacking. That’s a really strange strategy. I mean I’m sorry,” Landsbergis told journalists.
“We need to act unified, we need to coordinate, this call was not coordinated between allies, even [though] we got a very deep brief later on,” said Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna.
Scholz said that during his phone call with Putin, he urged the Russian president “to end Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine and to withdraw its troops.”
According to a German government spokesperson, Scholz had informed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of the call beforehand. “The Federal Chancellor urged Russia to be prepared to negotiate with Ukraine with the aim of achieving a just and lasting peace,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
Asked whether he would speak to Putin, the EU’s top diplomat Josep Borrell said: “I don’t think so.”
He added: “It doesn’t look like he [Putin] is willing to negotiate, to the contrary.”
“What I see in general is that Putin only listens to facts on the ground,” said Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp about the call.
Zelenskyy had also criticized Scholz’s move saying Friday night that his call to Putin had opened a “Pandora’s box.”
“Now there may be other conversations, other calls. Just a lot of words,” Zelenskyy said in his evening address.
“And this is exactly what Putin has long wanted: It is crucial for him to weaken his isolation, Russia’s isolation,” he added.
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