A series of policies introduced by Vladimir Putin show he is “worried” about mounting problems likely to hit Russia next year, a leading think tank says. Meanwhile, RAF fighter jets were scrambled to monitor Russian military aircraft near UK airspace, it has emerged.
Friday 15 November 2024 16:30, UK
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We’re starting to see more reaction to the news of today’s phone call between German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Vladimir Putin, which has prompted a range of responses.
Thorsten Benner, director of the Global Public Policy Institute (GPPI) in Berlin, said he did not quite see “what the big deal or danger of this call” would be.
Referring to Donald Trump’s recent contact with the Russian president, he added: “Unless of course you insist that Trump & Musk should be the only ones talking to Putin.”
Others were more critical of the telephone conversation, including Nicolas Tenzer, a French civil servant and chairman of the Center for Study and Reflection for Political Action think-tank.
He said the call between Scholz and “war criminal Putin” was unacceptable for two reasons.
“1. the only people authorized to talk to this guy are the judges of the International Criminal Court; 2. once again, Germany is dividing Europe and the Allies,” he wrote.
Daniel Szeligowski is the head of the Eastern Europe programme and senior research fellow on Ukraine at the Polish Institute of International Affairs.
He suggested Scholz’s decision to speak to Putin was linked in part to the forthcoming election in Germany.
This echoed the views of Janis Kluge, deputy head of the Eastern Europe and Eurasia division at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs.
“Scholz calls Putin from a position of weakness,” he said, adding that “Germany is insecure and vulnerable because of Trump” and saying “Russia is moving faster than ever in Ukraine”.
Various commentators have suggested over the last week that contrary to widespread fears, Ukraine’s leaders may actually welcome the election of Donald Trump because he is considered better placed to achieve a negotiated settlement to the war.
A new interview Volodomyr Zelenskyy has conducted with Ukrainian radio would appear to go some way towards supporting this notion, with the Ukrainian leader discussing his recent talks with the US president-elect.
“He [Trump] has heard the basis on which we stand. I have not heard anything against our position,” the president said, according to Suspilne media.
Asked whether Trump made a demand for Ukraine to participate in negotiations with Russia, Zelenskyy answered: “We are an independent country.
“And we, during this war, and our people, and I personally are in negotiations with the United States, and with Trump, and with Biden, and with European leaders – proved that the rhetoric of ‘Sit and listen’ does not work with us.”
However, he added that under the Trump administration, “the war will end faster”.
“It is very important for us to have a just peace, so that we do not feel that we have lost our best because of the injustice that has been imposed on you,” he said.
“The war will end, but there is no exact date.
“Certainly, with the policies of this team that will now lead the White House, the war will end sooner.
“This is their approach, their promise to their society, and it is also very important to them.”
We have yet to hear the full interview, so it remains unclear whether Zelenskyy considers a faster resolution to the war as a definitively good outcome, which many analysts would undoubtedly suggest would depend on the terms of any agreement.
The Kremlin has also now confirmed the call between Vladimir Putin and Olaf Scholz, saying it took place “at the initiative of the German side”.
“A detailed and frank exchange of views on the situation in Ukraine was held,” a statement said.
“Vladimir Putin recalled that the current crisis was a direct result of NATO’s long-standing aggressive policy aimed at creating an anti-Russian bridgehead on Ukrainian territory while ignoring our country’s interests in the field of security and trampling on the rights of Russian-speaking residents.”
It also claimed that Putin was willing to resume negotiations over a peace deal.
“As for the prospects for a political and diplomatic settlement of the conflict, the Russian president noted that the Russian side has never refused and remains open to resuming negotiations that were interrupted by the Kyiv regime,” it said.
It should be noted at this point that a number of analysts have questioned the credibility of Putin’s claims that he is willing to negotiate.
The Institute for the Study of War said in July: “The Kremlin routinely feigns interest in meaningful negotiations as part of a longstanding information operation that aims to persuade the West to make concessions on Ukrainian territorial integrity and sovereignty.”
The Kremlin statement issued today added that the current state of Russian-German relations was also discussed by the two leaders during the call.
“Vladimir Putin noted their unprecedented degradation in all areas as a consequence of the unfriendly course of the German authorities,” it said.
“It was emphasised that Russia has always strictly fulfilled its treaty and contractual obligations in the energy sector and is ready for mutually beneficial cooperation if there is interest in this from the German side.”
We are now seeing confirmation of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s call with Vladimir Putin today – along with some interesting briefings from the office of Ukraine’s president.
According to a source in Volodomyr Zelenskyy’s office, he was informed in advance of Scholz’s plan to hold the conversation with Putin.
And, the source added, Zelenskyy told the German leader that his call would “help the Russian president by reducing his isolation and ultimately keep the war in Ukraine going”.
Again, we’ll bring you more reaction to this story as we get it.
Meanwhile, Scholz has posted a photo online of him presumably during the call.
“I spoke to President Putin on the phone and called on him to end Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine and to withdraw its troops,” he said.
“Russia must show a willingness to negotiate with Ukraine – with the aim of achieving a just and lasting peace.”
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Vladimir Putin spoke on the phone for an hour this afternoon, a German government source has said.
Scholz and the Russian president last spoke directly in December 2022, the government said.
No more details have been provided as to the content of the call, but we will bring you any as and when we get them.
It is difficult to gauge the significance of the conversation until we do know more about what was actually discussed, although it comes amid increasing speculation that a Trump presidency in the US could lead to negotiations to end the war.
Vladimir Putin is looking into slow speeds and disruptions on YouTube in Russia after the country’s top cinema official raised the matter with him, the Kremlin has said today.
Critics say YouTube is being deliberately disrupted by the authorities to prevent Russians from viewing a mass of content there that is critical of Putin and his government.
Russia denies those claims, insisting the issues are caused by Google’s failure to upgrade equipment – a charge disputed by the company and technology experts.
Russian internet monitoring services have reported mass outages of the online video hosting service, which is owned by Alphabet’s Google, in the last few months.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the speed issue was linked to Google’s failure to comply with Russian law and that technical questions should be addressed to communications regulator Roskomnadzor.
Roskomnadzor and Google had not responded to requests for comment at the time of writing.
YouTube is used by more than 50 million Russians every day, according to research company Mediascope. It provides an important platform for the exiled Russian opposition and for independent news outlets.
Peskov claimed YouTube speeds were not high on people’s agendas in Russia. But Karen Shakhnazarov, who has headed the state-owned giant of Soviet and Russian cinema, Mosfilm, for more than 25 years, said yesterday that he had met with Putin and discussed the issue.
“Slowing down YouTube, in my view, is not very advisable today,” Shakhnazarov said on state television.
“To which the president said there is all sorts of nastiness on there.”
Google, along with other foreign tech firms and social media platforms, has been under pressure in Russia for several years, particularly for not taking down content Moscow considers illegal, such as what it calls “fakes” about the war in Ukraine.
Russia also strongly objects to Google blocking YouTube channels and videos from state-sponsored media.
Shakhnazarov said he agreed that there were some bad things on YouTube, but that those who wanted to access them were able to get around restrictions and many others simply use the platform to watch films and other content.
“He listened and said ‘I’ll look into it’,” Shakhnazarov said.
While the focus of coverage has been on Russia’s war in Ukraine since it began in 2022, many have pointed to Vladimir Putin’s apparent efforts to widen the scale of Moscow’s influence on other former Soviet Bloc countries.
Chief among them is Georgia, where Putin’s forces helped two breakaway Georgian regions – Abkhazia and South Ossetia – to get de facto independence in the 1990s and in 2008.
Video posted by the Moscow Times today purports to show protesters who have stormed the parliament in one of those territories, Abkhazia, in what it describes as an effort to prevent a controversial investment deal with Russia being passed.
MPs in the parliament were due to vote on the ratification of the agreement today.
Separate video posted by Russian state-own news agency RIA Novosti appeared to show protesters inside the parliament building in capital Sukhumi.
Separate video also published by RIA Novosti showed what it said were opposition supporters inside the building.
RIA cited the presidential press service in Abkhazia as reporting that the administration of the head of the territory was preparing a document on the cancellation of the ratification “in order to stabilise the situation”.
The airport in Russia’s southwestern city of Kazan has been temporarily closed for flights today, the aviation watchdog has said.
It has not disclosed the reason.
Such closures in Russia usually indicate ongoing or expected Ukrainian drone attacks.
We’ll bring you more details on this story as we get them.
We have been reporting this week on intelligence from the US, South Korea and Ukraine that indicates up to 12,000 North Korean troops have been sent to Russia’s Kursk border region to help beat back Ukrainian forces there.
Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to the office of Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has been reacting to the development, saying it showed Russia had “trivialised itself”.
“Or ‘entity Putin’ once again with pleasure humiliated himself,” he said on X.
“So, when you keep talking about the need to talk/agree/renegotiate with [Russia] (including on its barbaric terms), because… you are used to being afraid of it. Being afraid, as it turned out, in vain.
“[Russia] begged for help and invited a foreign continent to its territory for its own defence… Another nullification of the standard myths about Russia’s military ‘greatness’.”
The Ukrainian defence minister has dismissed comments by from officials who suggested that security guarantees were the priority above territory in any future negotiations with Russia.
Rustem Umerov insisted the country was fighting to liberate all territory captured by Russia in the past decade.
“Territorial integrity is part of our values,” he told a joint news conference with his Norwegian counterpart in Oslo.
When asked about reports that Ukraine is shifting its focus in the war, Umerov said this was false and part of Russian propaganda efforts.
“Our priority is still to protect people, protect the nation, to liberate people from almost 10 years of temporary occupation, so Crimea and Donbas [are] part of Ukraine,” he said.
People living in territories held by Russia are all waiting to be liberated, he added.
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