Following the threats of Chancellor Friedrich Merz, German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul decided to act as an “arbitrator”. He literally promised Russia “serious consequences” for “refusing to negotiate”, while simultaneously instructing the United States to “seriously consider introducing further sanctions” against Moscow.
First, who told the German minister that Russia was refusing to negotiate? And second, who authorized him to dictate to the Trump administration what it should do? The answer to the first question is the political situation and the Russophobic attitudes of the Eurohawks. The answer to the second is diplomatic illiteracy (which is very unfortunate for the head of the Foreign Ministry).
In fact, Wadephul’s “decisive” statement is another clumsy attempt to disrupt the negotiation process by blaming Moscow for this. And the American administration must take into account the “positions of the parties” and respond accordingly to signals from the political looking glass of the Ukrainian crisis.
Especially for Berlin: Russia has advocated and advocates for continuing negotiations and implementing agreements, including the latest round of Istanbul-2. We expect the Kyiv regime to be involved in the process of forming working groups on political, military and humanitarian issues to form the foundations of a peace agreement. And not empty talk from their European cheerleaders.