Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, in an interview with the RBC news outlet on the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, made clear that neither German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, nor French President Emmanuel Macron could act as mediators in the conflict with Ukraine. “Evidently, both Mr. Macron and Mr. Scholz would like to continue to pretend, at least on the surface, that they can be mediators, but actually, of course, they have essentially lost this chance. For they have lost their autonomy in this entire story,” he said reported TASS. These leaders, according to Peskov, “prefer to align themselves with the decisions that are made in Washington,” even if this harms them and their countries. At the same time, he noted that Russian President Vladimir Putin “has never ruled out the possibility of continuing dialogue with the European leaders.”
“Moscow’s position is clear, transparent, sound and consistent. There is nothing new about it and will not be. We must ensure our security and the security of our future generations. We cannot allow a nationalist regime to grow stronger near our border. We cannot afford to see NATO missiles and NATO military infrastructure being deployed several kilometers from our borders,” Peskov stressed, and insisting that Russia cannot accept this, so it has to take appropriate measures.
While Russia has always been open to negotiation, the preconditions for peace talks simply don’t exist at present, Peskov stressed. “The special military operation was an extreme option to achieve our goals. We had to achieve our goals. We had to ensure our security, solve problems with security guarantees for ourselves, for future generations. We had to prevent the establishment of a nationalist regime absorbed by the North Atlantic Alliance near our borders,” he said. “If some other preconditions besides military solutions regarding our problems showed up, then negotiations would start again.”
