Sigmar Gabriel, a minister for Economic Affairs and Energy and Vice Chancellor of Germany, called on western countries to deepen insight towards Russia’s policies, Deutsche Welle reported.
“What we don’t need is permanent ideological castigation, constant search for new reasons for conflict,” he declared at a Social Democratic Party’s meeting in Mainz.
At the same time, he pointed out that Russia is a “complicated country and troublesome partner,” adding that lifting of sanctions requires full implementation of the Minsk agreement regarding the Ukraine crisis.
Deutsche Welle has also reported Gabriel’s purported visit to Moscow in late October, according to anonymous sources.
“This doesn’t mean that the ‘ice age’ [in relations between two countries] is over, but a sign of rapprochement between Russia and Germany in the course of the tense political situation,” the newspaper reported, citing the words of its unnamed source.
At the end of September, Gabriel declared that maintaining anti-Russian sanctions for a long period of time is impossible, if the West is interested in collaboration with Moscow in the Syrian crisis. In Berlin those claims were taken as deviation from the official political line.