The Kremlin said on Wednesday it had no information about a reported meeting between former senior German and Russian officials that Western media said may have taken place in Azerbaijan’s capital, Baku.
“I have no information about such a meeting, so I have nothing to tell you,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters when asked about the reports.
Peskov was responding to an article published by Britain’s The Times, which, citing Germany’s Die Zeit and public broadcaster ARD, reported that former German and Russian officials had held closed-door talks in Baku earlier this month.
According to the reports, Germany was represented by Ronald Pofalla, former chief of staff to ex-Chancellor Angela Merkel, and Matthias Platzeck, the former premier of the state of Brandenburg. The Russian delegation reportedly included Valery Fadeyev, head of the Russian Presidential Council for Civil Society and Human Rights, and Viktor Zubkov, chairman of Gazprom’s board of directors and a former Russian prime minister.
A day earlier, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said Baku had not been informed of any such meeting. Speaking at a news conference in Berlin, Aliyev said Azerbaijani authorities reviewed border-crossing records following the media reports and confirmed that all of the individuals named in the reports had been in Azerbaijan at the same time, from July 12 to July 14.
“Neither Germany nor Russia informed us about this. Our territory was simply used without our knowledge,” Aliyev said.
At the same time, Aliyev said he could not confirm that the talks had actually taken place, as Azerbaijani authorities had no direct information about any meeting. However, he said travel records suggested such a meeting could have occurred. He added that Azerbaijan would welcome any initiative that could help bring the war between Russia and Ukraine closer to an end.
Commenting separately on the war in Ukraine, Peskov said Russian forces were “continuing offensive operations along the entire front line.” He added that the conditions for ending hostilities outlined by President Vladimir Putin in the summer of 2024 remained unchanged. Those conditions include the withdrawal of Ukrainian forces from the Donbas region and Kyiv abandoning its bid to join NATO.
Peskov also declined to comment on a Bloomberg report that Moscow had allegedly hardened its position on territorial issues, saying such matters were “not subject to public discussion” and describing media reports on the subject as “largely speculative.” He said an end to the fighting depended on Kyiv’s decision to begin what he described as serious negotiations.
