Putin Reaches Out to an Old Friend

Russian President Vladimir Putin is ready to talk peace—and this time he might actually mean it.

As Russia held its VE Day celebrations on May 9, Putin announced that the war in Ukraine was heading toward a settlement, founded on a new relationship, not with the U.S. but with Europe. He said he wanted the negotiator to be his old friend, former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder.

• Whether or not Putin gets his way, the statement “indicates something very important,” wrote Geopolitical Futures founder George Friedman. “Putin wants to return to the period in which Russia seemed to be preparing for a role within the European system.”

The war in Ukraine has been costly for Russia. Now, writes Friedman, “The relationship between Europe (specifically, nato) and the U.S. has deteriorated to a point where a new geopolitical system must emerge.”

• Putin is offering Europe an earthshaking deal: If you’re really fed up with Donald Trump and America, we can help you make a clean break very quickly.

The choice of Schröder alone is a message, as Friedman points out. He played the key role in setting up the Nord Stream pipelines, which tied Germany and Russia together at the expense of the rest of Europe and the U.S.

• Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry wrote at the time, “The fact that these two are working so closely together strongly indicates that they agree on a plan to destroy nato.”

Putin wants to get that plan back on track.

Some in Germany are minded to accept.

• The German government initially rejected the plan. But the Social Democrats, part of the ruling coalition, want to accept. Their foreign affairs spokesman, Adis Ahmetović, said the idea should be “seriously considered” and “not dismissed outright.”
• The Telegraph reports on a rumor spreading around Berlin that the government may agree to send Schröder, if former Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier joins him as a partner.

“Many elite Germans feel their nation has now gotten all it can from the U.S. and they are ready to move on,” Mr. Flurry wrote in his 2018 article. He continued:

Some powerful Germans today are thinking more and more about the Holy Roman Empire, and they want modern Germany to assume more power of its own in the spirit of that empire. They want to establish Europe as a mighty, German-led superpower.

Those Germans know that they’ll need a deal with Russia to make that break. And so Mr. Flurry has watched Schröder and other Germans closely. For more on that dramatic break, read Mr. Flurry’s article “Germany and Russia’s Secret War Against America.”