A group of "influential Russians and Germans" will meet next Sunday, October 20, in the capital of Azerbaijan. They will have dinner together in one of the Baku hotels, and negotiations on bilateral cooperation are scheduled for Monday, October 21. Such "sensational" details were made by the German media on the eve.
The weekly "Zeit" notes that the secret meeting is taking place under the official logo of the "Petersburg Dialogue", which is considered completed many years ago.
"But, apparently, high-ranking representatives of the Kremlin are still negotiating with influential Germans from the world of politics. The meeting will be politically explosive, as it will undermine Germany's official foreign policy, which is aimed at Russia's political isolation," ARD TV channel believes.
The Petersburg Dialogue was initiated in 2001 by the then German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and Russian leader Vladimir Putin; its goal was to bring German and Russian civil society closer together. When Russia considered the organizations participating in the dialogue "undesirable" in 2021, the meetings were officially interrupted by Germany.
According to the program, at the meeting in Baku will be attended by former SPD chairman and former Brandenburg Prime Minister Mathias Platzeck, former head of the Federal Chancellery Ronald Pofalla from the CDU and former head of the Petersburg Dialogue Martin Hoffmann. Platzek was a member of the Board of directors of the Petersburg Dialogue for many years, and Pofalla headed it from 2015 to 2021.
Two Swiss people are also mentioned as participants: former Swiss Ambassador to Berlin Tim Guldimann and former OSCE Secretary General and now director of the Geneva Center for Security Policy Thomas Greminger (the center is funded by the Swiss state).
"None of the non-Russian participants mentioned in the program confirmed their planned participation in the meeting. One of them clearly denies it when asked, some do not answer at all, others answer evasively," the German media claim.
However, in a recent interview with the Neue Zurich Zeitung newspaper, Greminger drew attention to the need for "formats of trusting dialogue" with Russia.
Bundestag member and foreign policy expert Armin Laschet is also a participant in the program. However, when asked by the media, Lashet's assistant explained that the politician "will not take part in any negotiations in Baku."
According to the program, one of the participants of the meeting will be the former Prime Minister of Russia Viktor Zubkov, who has been chairman of the Gazprom Supervisory Board since 2008. Valery Fadeev, Chairman of the Presidential Council for Human Rights, was also on the list of participants. Special Representative of the Russian President for Cultural Cooperation with Foreign countries Mikhail Shvydkoi, also mentioned in the program of the meeting in Baku, told the German media that the negotiations in Baku, scheduled for October 20-21, will be informal, the participants will speak only on their own behalf and will not represent any institutions, including the Petersburg Dialogue.