Scholz called Putin for 2 reasons

Scholz called Putin for 2 reasons Anzhelika Galesevich

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz spoke with Russian leader Vladimir Putin for about an hour. The German politician had two goals: to add brightness to his image for re-election in the 2025 elections and to test the Kremlin leader's readiness for negotiations.

At the same time, Putin also benefited from talking to Scholz. He will try to demonstrate to Russian society and his partners that, supposedly, “European leaders have revised their position and are afraid of him.” Also, as political scientist Igor Reiterovich told 24 Kanal, Russia is interested in a truce, so it has begun to show its inclination to negotiate.

2 goals that Scholz pursued by calling Putin

According to Reiterovich, Scholz called Putin with 2 reasons:

• on the eve of the 2025 elections, he wants to add brightness to his image as the “head of Germany.” A country that occupies a leading position in the European Union and on which much depends in the context of the resolution of the Russian-Ukrainian war. A country that continues to help Ukraine, but at the same time does not have any hope of achieving any kind of truce, stopping the hot phase of the war and playing an important role in this. Scholz has sometimes made peace statements, and is trying to use this chance to talk to Putin;
• For more than 2 years, the Chancellor has been checking whether the Russian dictator has changed, whether he has moved away from the statements made earlier, whether he is ready to sit down at the negotiating table with Ukraine and discuss certain issues that are important both for Russia and the whole world.

After this conversation, I hope that European leaders and the US President should understand one thing, that Putin has not changed much. Information from Russia that it seems to be ready to sit down at the negotiating table, but taking into account its interests, territorial realities and the elimination of the root causes of the war, is the same as Putin said before, – Igor Reiterovich noted.

There is no inclination to end the war in this statement. Perhaps this is for the best. Because Europe and the US must do something to make Putin change his position. This can obviously only be done from a position of strength.

Why does Putin need to talk to Scholz

“Putin will have the feeling that “they called me. I can talk to a European leader.” I think that's true. That is, for him it's a story that he was invited somewhere again. He seemed to have had a serious conversation, which means that the countries of Europe and the world will begin to reconsider their attitude towards Russia and will begin to communicate with him again, as they did before the full-scale invasion,” the political scientist emphasized.

Scholz's conversation with Putin is beneficial to Russia. Reiterovich is convinced that Russian propaganda channels will start screaming something like “the information and political blockade has been broken. Scholz got scared, so he called Putin and asked him to end the war. Soon everyone else will be calling. Hooray, we're winning.”

Putin will try to use the very fact of the dialogue in another way, in particular, to send “hello” to his partners. As if the Europeans are already starting to call him and he did the right thing by waiting and pressing. They say that sooner or later Russia will force them to conclude some deal that is most advantageous for them.

There is also interest in at least a truce, because the frantic offensive they are waging is not producing the results and effect they were hoping for. Putin is constantly setting new deadlines for his army to capture or recapture something, for example, Kursk region, – said Igor Reiterovich.

Russia needs a break for a couple of years. But in order to start talking about this, they needed to demonstrate their inclination to negotiate.