Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has indirectly confirmed a secret German-Russian meeting in the Azerbaijani capital, Baku. At a press conference with Chancellor Merz in Berlin July 21, Aliyev reported on information he had received from his border guards.
They told that former Brandenburg Minister-President Matthias Platzeck (SPD) and former Head of the Federal Chancellery Ronald Pofalla (CDU) flew from Berlin to Baku on July 12. In the days that followed, former Russian Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov and chairman of Russia’s Presidential Council for Civil Society and Human Rights Valery Fadeyev arrived. Both are considered close associates of Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin. Platzeck and Pofalla are former chairmen of the German-Russian Dialogue.