MOSCOW, November 19 (Sputnik) — German Left Party Chairwoman Katja Kipping says that Chancellor Angela Merkel should invite Russian President Vladimir Putin to the next G8 Summit, with the aim of improving relations between the two countries, German media has reported.
“As the chairwoman of the next summit of the G8 [which is to be held in Schloss Elmau, Germany next June] “Chancellor Merkel should set the tone and invite President Putin as an equal partner,” Kipping told the German daily Rheinische Post in an interview.
Kipping’s remarks follow discussions of a new round of sanctions by European countries against Russia.
Last month, Gregor Gysi, a senior Left Party parliamentarian, noted that German sanctions against Russia were chiefly responsible for a 5.8 percent decline in German exports in August, and that the country’s sanctions policy was “absolutely inappropriate” and a “politically, economically and socially erroneous path.”
Earlier, discussing the harm Germany’s sanctions policy had on Germany itself, Mr. Gysi said that “[Chancellor] Merkel’s error is that she gives in [to pressure] from Barack Obama. The American President is constantly talking about economic sanctions, but the countersanctions measures taken by Russia hit at us, not at the US. Why can’t we, in place of sanctions, create close political, economic and military relations with Russia instead? If we isolate Russia, our [German] influence will amount to nothing.”
