BERLIN (Sputnik) — Christian Lindner stressed that "readiness for dialogue means that talks in the G8 format will be resumed with Russian President Vladimir Putin to determine whether he is ready to change policies."
He added that it was impossible to lift sanctions against Russia unless the country were to take certain steps.
"The FDP does not raise the question of whether to follow the proposal of the Foreign Minister of Germany [Sigmar Gabriel] on the issue of lifting the sanctions unilaterally, without reciprocal steps of Russia", Lindner said.
Russia was sanctioned by the European Union and the United States in 2014 when the Ukrainian crisis broke out. Moscow responded by introducing a year-long food embargo on several imports from the countries that have targeted Russia with the restrictions, extending the current embargo several times.
This year a total of 42 parties participated in the election. Nevertheless, the real competition was among six major parties: Chancellor Angela Merkel's bloc of Christian Democratic Union and Christian Social Union (CDU/CSU), Social Democratic Party (SPD) led by former EU Parliament President and Merkel's key rival Martin Schulz, the Green Party, the Free Democratic Party (FDP), the Left Party and eurosceptic party Alternative for Germany (AfD).
As a result of the elections, the CDU got 33 percent of votes, the SPD received 20.5 percent, while the AfD received 12.6 percent. The CDU/CSU receives 246 seats, SPD — 153. The AfD enters the parliament with 94 mandates, the FDP got 80 seats, The Left Party increases its presence up to 69 seats and the Green Party up to 67.
