Leaders Of 4 Eastern German States Want Russia Back To G7

BERLIN (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 25th August, 2019) Minister presidents of four eastern German states have wished to see Russia's return to G7, changing it back to G8, local media reported on Sunday.

Prior to the ongoing summit in Biarritz, French President Emmanuel Macron proposed inviting Russia to the next summit, receiving an approval from US leader Donald Trump. Some politicians, like German Chancellor Angela Merkel, remain staunch opponents of the idea.

"I do not want to give outsider advises to the participants of the G7 summit. But, the more there are formats for talking to Russia, the better," Michael Kretschmer, the head of Saxony's government, told Welt am Sonntag newspaper, adding that eastern Germany is far more sensitive to the issue, which is why the policy of isolating Moscow does not play well in the region.

He is supported by his colleague from Thuringia, Bodo Ramelow, who claimed in the interview with the newspaper that while the West's reaction to the 2014 events in Crimea was appropriate at first, the continuous isolation "has not, from today's point of view, improved the situation of the people there.

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"It would be good if Russia created conditions for returning to G7/G8. Russia belongs in that format, this is also in our interests," Dietmar Woidke, the head of Brandenburg's government, said, stressing that dialogue with Russia is especially necessary now, after the scrapping of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty.

Reiner Haseloff, the leader of Saxony-Anhalt, complained to the newspaper that the sanctions against Russia had damaged the East German economy without improving the situation in Ukraine.

Recently, many people in eastern Germany have begun voicing the desire to normalize relations between Berlin and Moscow. According to a July poll by Der Tagesspiegel newspaper, 72 percent of residents of eastern German states that used to be part of the German Democratic Republic during the Cold War want closer ties with Russia, compared to 54 percent of western Germans who want the same thing.