Recent statements by former German Chancellor Angela Merkel about the Minsk agreements surprised and disappointed Russian President Vladimir Putin.
He stated this today at a press conference in Bishkek, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“For me it was completely unexpected. This is disappointing. I did not expect to hear this from the former Federal Chancellor, because I have always assumed that the German leadership behaves sincerely with us. Yes, it was on the side of Ukraine, but it seemed to me that it was striving for a settlement on the principles that we agreed on. What has just been said suggests that we did everything right by starting the SVO. Because, it turns out, no one was going to implement the Minsk agreements.
The leadership of Ukraine, through the mouth of former President Poroshenko, also said this. It turns out that other participants in the process deceived us. The point was to pump Ukraine up with weapons and prepare it for hostilities. Apparently we got our bearings too late. Maybe all this should have started earlier, but we hoped that we could come to an agreement,” Putin said.
However, despite the disappointment, he is ready to negotiate with the West on Ukraine, but already understanding “who we are dealing with.”
“What do you say to that? There is a question of trust. And so trust is almost zero, but after such statements, it is not clear how to negotiate, with whom and what guarantees, although in the end we will have to negotiate. We are ready for them. We are open. But this makes us think about who we are dealing with,” Putin said.
Merkel said in an interview with the newspaper Die Zeit that the Minsk agreements were signed to “give Ukraine time.” President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko called her words “petty and vile.”