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EU’s Kaja Kallas rejects Gerhard Schröder as negotiator

newsMay 11, 2026262,214

EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas rejected former German chancellor Gerhard Schröder as a negotiator for talks with Russia over Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin had proposed Schröder as a mediator, but Kallas said Schröder's long-standing role as a lobbyist for Russian state-owned companies and his close ties to Moscow make him unfit. Kallas said the EU has not yet agreed on a common approach to negotiations and warned Moscow is not acting in good faith, so the bloc is not ready to enter talks. Her stance matters because accepting a Putin-aligned mediator would undermine EU credibility and let Moscow leverage personal ties to shape any peace process.

Savchenko Volodymyr
@savchenkoua.bsky.social

🇪🇺 Kallas: If we give the right to Russia to appoint negotiator on our behalf, you know, that would not be very wise. I think Gerhard Schröder has been the high-level lobbyist for Russian state, so that actually, you know, he would be sitting on both sides of the table.

21845d ago
Ristretto12

Schröder is basically Europe's Witkoff.

Femke7

And that is absolutely correct

Tibor B.6

The person of the negotiator is irrelevant as long as Russia is not ready to negotiate.

Solenoid System6

Remember that the "negotiations" is, and has always been, a stalling strategy preventing the west from moving faster than they otherwise would with the sanctions. You do not negotiate with a war criminal. Unless Putin shows up in the Hague: arm, help, invest, finance Ukraine, disrupt Russia.

Bart W6

Gerhard Schröder is widely considered to be a national traitor to Germany and Germanies interests with his involvement in the Nord stream pipelines; which russia weaponized. There's a reason he moved to Moscow... Also, why negotiate with russia ? They'll break any agreement in a week anyway.

Alan U. Kennington 🇦🇺5

That's putting it diplomatically. In fact, Schröder would be fully on the Russian side. The fact that he is fluent in German does not imply that he is pro-German or even pro-European. Schröder could, however, be a negotiator representing Russia.

exercice-de-style.bsky.social3

As long as diplomacy is offered to RUS, it will return with demands for surrender or absurd (Schröder...) & unrealistic proposals, allowing it to buy time to massacre US Diplomacy, though advantageous to RUS for 1year, was a complete failure Only the language used by AFU was fully understood by RUS

turtlespace.bsky.social2

The only reasonable role for Schroeder at such negotiations would be as a Russian enjoy.

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