High-stakes talks for Scholz and Putin as Russia begins troop pullout

Moscow (dpa) – Germany’s new Chancellor Olaf Scholz landed in Moscow on Tuesday for his first face-to-face talks with longtime Russian President Vladimir Putin in the midst of a diplomatic barrage aimed at averting conflict in Ukraine.

The meeting comes hours after Moscow announced that it had begun withdrawing troops deployed in the south and west of the country, near Ukraine’s border, back to their permanent bases, although it did not give an exact number.

“As combat training measures are coming to a close, the troops, as is always the case, will conduct combined marches to their permanent garrisons,” Defence Ministry spokesperson Igor Konashenkov said.

“Units of the Southern and Western Military Districts that have accomplished their tasks have already begun loading personnel and equipment on railway and auto transport means and will today begin heading to their military garrisons,” he said in a statement quoted by the TASS news agency.

The troop deployments have caused tensions between the West and Russia to soar to levels not seen since the Cold War. Moscow has said its soldiers were only taking part in legal military exercises.

But the show of force has stoked fears in the West – which counts over 100,000 Russian troops near Ukraine’s border – that Russia is preparing an attack, an allegation the Kremlin has denied.

Russia is also currently holding joint military exercises with Belarus and large-scale naval manoeuvres in the Black Sea, off the annexed Crimean Peninsula.

Scholz’s visit to Moscow – his first since taking office in December – is the latest top-level meeting on the crisis.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and US President Joe Biden spoke on Monday. According to Downing Street, they agreed that “crucial window for diplomacy” remains open.

French President Emmanuel Macron visited Russia last week, but with little apparent progress, and in the process allowed Putin time to air his many grievances about the behaviour of NATO and the West in recent history.

There have also been NATO talks with Russia and direct Russia-Ukraine talks mediated by Germany and France.

The Tuesday meeting is a high-stakes challenge for Scholz to prove his negotiating clout and test his resolve when faced with the long-serving Russian leader – who knows Germany well and speaks German after serving for several years as a KGB intelligence officer in former East Germany.

Scholz refused to take a Russian coronavirus test before the meeting, instead opting to have a doctor from the German embassy carry out the PCR test required for entry to the Kremlin.

Russian health officials have been invited to be present for the test, according to sources from the German delegation.

Macron also refused to take a Russian PCR test prior to his talks with Putin last week. As a result, their talks took place at a six-metre-long white table to allow for drastic social-distancing measures. At the press conference that followed, the two leaders also stood several metres apart.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said earlier that the responsibility for de-escalation lies “clearly with Russia.”

“The fate of an entire country and its population is at stake at the borders with Ukraine due to the Russian troop deployment,” she warned.

One of the most sensitive issues for Germany and Russia is the Nord Stream 2 pipeline under Baltic Sea. Long seen outside Germany as a controversial project, designed to bring Russian gas directly into Europe, Berlin has been repeatedly pushed by allies including the United States to say it will shut Nord Stream down in the event of a Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Scholz himself has spoken of a “very, very serious threat to peace in Europe” before his departure, but has refused to say that Nord Stream will be closed.

Ahead of the visit, the Ukrainian ambassador in Germany, Andriy Melnyk, urged Scholz to take a tough stance with Putin.

“Only a clear ultimatum to Mr Putin with a deadline to order back his armed-to-the-teeth hordes no later than February 16 can still save world peace,” Melnyk told the newspapers of Germany’s Funke media group in remarks published on Tuesday.