Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, the leader of Germany’s ruling Christian Democratic Union, said on Wednesday that she considered it right to maintain political ties and continue cooperating with Russia, which she said was just too big a neighbour to ignore.
“Even during the Cold War, we always maintained contacts with then the Soviet Union. I consider it right. From my point of view, it is not at all reprehensible if a prime minister, no matter from what political camp, also participates in conferences in Russia and has meetings with the Russian president. Russia is too big a neighbor for us to just ignore it. Therefore, we should … make cooperation and maintaining relations [with Russia] our policy goal,” Kramp-Karrenbauer said at a conference, streamed on Die Welt newspaper’s website.
Earlier this month, Russian President Vladimir Putin held talks with the German minister-president of the Free State of Saxony, Michael Kretschmer, on the sidelines of the St Petersburg International Economic Forum. Ahead of his participation in the forum, Kretschmer called for ending sanctions on Russia and normalising relations with Moscow.