PRESS RELEASE

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Petersburg Dialogue To Meet in Berlin

Nov. 15, 2017 (EIRNS)—The German-Russian Petersburg Dialogue will convene in Berlin on Nov. 23, for the first time in four years moving somewhat out from the shadows, because it will be attended by Economic Ministers Brigitte Zypries of Germany and Maxim Oreshkin of Russia. The German refusal as of 2014 to attend with officials at a government level, under the pretext of the Ukraine crisis, had put a big question mark over the entire Dialogue format.

Whether the end of this German boycott signals a new start in bilateral relations, remains to be seen: The German co-chairman of the Dialogue, Merkel’s former Chancellery Minister, Ronald Pofalla, told Bildzeitung today that the repression against critics like Alexei Navalny showed that nothing has improved inside Russia in the past years; therefore, Germany has no greater expectations for this Berlin meeting, except that the dialogue is taking place.