German Chancellor reveals the result of his phone call with the Russian president

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Sunday that his conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday didn’t reveal any signs of a change in his thinking on the war in Ukraine, and defended his decision to reach out to him despite facing sharp criticism.

Speaking before leaving for the G20 summit in Brazil, Scholz said his conversation with Putin was necessary to dispel any illusions the Russian president may have about the West abandoning its support for Ukraine.

The German chancellor said he saw it as wrong for any European leader not to communicate with Putin at a time when Washington is communicating frequently with him, referring to the imminent return of Donald Trump to the US presidency.

“The conversation was very detailed but it helped us understand that the Russian president’s views on the war have not changed much,” he told reporters. “That’s not good news”.

The German government said last week that Scholz had held talks with US President-elect Donald Trump, and they confirmed that they were “ready to work together to restore peace to Europe”.

Scholz’s spokesman said, “The two sides exchanged views on relations between Germany and the United States and current geopolitical problems”.

On this regard, the Washington Post reported on the same day that Trump had spoken with Putin two days earlier.

The Washington Post quoted an informed source that the call made by Trump from his resort in Florida included advice from him to Putin not to escalate the war in Ukraine, while reminding him of the large US military presence in Europe.

However, the Kremlin denied the Washington Post’s report the next day about a phone call between Putin and Trump.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that what the newspaper reported has absolutely no connection to reality.