Russian President Vladimir Putin talks to Chancellor of Germany, Olaf Scholz – in brief, statements made to questions from the the press.
Scholz: ‘To my generation, war in Europe has become unimaginable. We must ensure it stays that way.’
Let me just say; ‘For my generation, it is impossible to imagine that there’s a war in Europe. Any more wars in Europe and we need to make everything possible, so there’s never ever a new war. Any new military escalation in Europe’.
Putin: ‘As for the war in Europe, the German chancellor has just said that people of his generation, and I belong to them, can hardly imagine a war in Europe. This refers to the situation around Ukraine. However, we have witnessed the war in Europe that was started by the NATO alliance – against Serbia (Yugoslavia). It was a major military operation, with missile and bomb strikes on one of the European capitals – Belgrade. This was done without the permission of the UN Security Council. That (NATO invasion) was a very bad example, but it happened.
This is the first. The second is about whether we want war or not. Of course not!
That is why we put forward proposals for a negotiation process, the result of which should be an agreement on ensuring equal security for all, including our country. Unfortunately, and we have already spoken about this, we have not received a substantive, constructive response to the proposals we have made. Nevertheless, we proceed from the fact that even in the documents that were sent to us by our partners from NATO and Washington, there are some elements that can be discussed.
But we are ready to do this only, in conjunction with those fundamental issues, that are of paramount importance to us. We hope, and I told the Federal Chancellor today about this, that the dialogue will develop in this way. Depending on how it develops, the situation will develop for all the other tracks, that worry you and us.
And we’re just as worried as you, I assure you.’