Scholz clarifies
“Putin never threatened me or Germany”
2/5/2023 5:16 am
Former British Prime Minister Johnson claims that Putin threatened him with rockets, but the Kremlin immediately denied it. In any case, there were no such announcements from Russia to Germany, says Chancellor Scholz. He countered the fear that the delivery of battle tanks would draw people into the war.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said he made no threats against Germany in his talks with Chancellor Olaf Scholz. “Putin didn’t threaten me or Germany,” Scholz told the “Bild am Sonntag”. Rather, the talks are an exchange of controversial positions: “Our very different points of view on the war in Ukraine become very clear in our telephone calls.”
Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said in a BBC interview published a few days ago that Putin had threatened him with a rocket attack in a telephone call in February 2022. Johnson said he took it more as a rhetorical tool. A spokesman for Putin had called Johnson’s account a lie and said Putin had made no such threat.
German tanks are not rolling in Russia
Scholz spoke of an exchange of opposing positions in his talks with the Russian President. “I am making it very clear to Putin that Russia bears sole responsibility for the war,” said the Chancellor. “For no reason, Russia invaded its neighboring country in order to grab parts of Ukraine or the whole country.” This fundamentally violates the European peace order. That is why Ukraine is receiving financial, humanitarian and weapon support, said Scholz. “Together with our allies, we are handing over battle tanks to Ukraine so that they can defend themselves.”
Scholz countered fears that Germany could be drawn into the war by supplying battle tanks to Ukraine. There is an agreement with the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that the weapons supplied from the West may only be used on Ukrainian territory, but not on Russian territory. “There is a consensus on that,” Scholz replied to a corresponding question. Scholz rejected the statement by Russian President Vladimir Putin that German tanks would again threaten Russia with the delivery of Leopard 2 tanks: Putin’s words “are part of a series of abstruse historical comparisons that he uses to illustrate his attack on Ukraine to justify,” the chancellor told the newspaper.