Bild Reveals Details of Macron-Scholz Phone Call Regarding Vladimir Putin

Bild has presented details of a phone conversation between French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz about Russian President Vladimir Putin from March 2022, reports RTVI.

In early March 2022, President Putin called on Chancellor Scholz to recognize Crimea as part of Russia and the Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics as independent. According to the tabloid Bild, this is evidenced by the transcript of the conversation between the German leader and the French president at that time.

The media outlet has presented key moments from that conversation.

“Something worries me more than the negotiations: he (Putin) is not at all dissatisfied with the sanctions. I don’t know if he mentioned this when he spoke to you. But he didn’t mention the sanctions at all,” Scholz told Macron.

“I talked about all my ideas on how to find a compromise … I spoke about demilitarization and denazification,” Scholz commented on the content of his conversation with Putin.

“He asked me to recognize Crimea as part of Russia and the independence of those republics (LPR and DPR). ... Nothing new, to be honest,” Bild quoted Scholz as saying.

“He mentioned two conditions. First, it should not be a reason for a ceasefire. In addition, he was talking only about the three of us— you, me, and him. Without (Ukrainian President Vladimir) Zelensky,” Scholz said regarding Putin's conditions for a meeting at the level of state leaders concerning Ukraine.

The chancellor noted that Putin had also mentioned at the time that the Ukrainian delegation had gone to Poland because they wanted to speak with U.S. President Joe Biden to receive “demonstrations” from the American side. Macron responded to Scholz that his dialogue with Putin was “very similar.”

According to the publication, the phone conversation between Scholz and Macron, reported by Bild, took place on the ninth day of military operations in Ukraine, on March 4, 2022. During the conversation, they discussed their negotiations with Putin.