20 March 2017, 09:42 GMT
MOSCOW(Sputnik) — Russia does not lose hope in restoring full-fledged cooperation with Germany, as economic and political-level efforts to achieve this continue, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday.
"We still do not lose hope that we will be able to restore our full-format cooperation, and, of course, we will work on this with our economic partners and partners at the political level," the Russian leader stated, confirming that German Chancellor Angela Merkel is expected to visit Moscow on May 2.
Putin added that Moscow's partners in Europe continue to work actively in Russia, but, unfortunately, recent developments in the economic sphere negatively affected the volumes of mutual trade. The president noted that at least 150,000 jobs were lost in Germany due to these unfavorable developments.
