Putin on Iran and Germany's Merz

19/6/2025 6:10

Russian

President Vladimir Putin made the following comments to senior

news agency editors on the conflict between Iran and Israel and

on whether he would be willing to speak to German Chancellor

Friedrich Merz.







ASKED ABOUT ISRAELI REMARKS ABOUT POSSIBLE REGIME CHANGE IN

IRAN:



"You always need to look at whether the goal is achieved or

not when starting something. We see that today in Iran, with all

the complexity of the internal political processes taking place

there, we are aware of this, and I think there is no point in

going deeper, but nevertheless there is a consolidation of

society around the country's political leadership. This happens

almost always and everywhere, and Iran is no exception. This is

the first thing.



"The second thing that is very important is that everyone is

talking about it, I will only repeat what we know and hear from

all sides, these underground factories, they exist, nothing has

happened to them. And in this regard, it seems to me that it

would be right for everyone to look for ways to end hostilities

and find ways for all parties to this conflict to come to an

agreement with each other in order to ensure both Iran's

interests, on the one hand, for its nuclear activities,

including peaceful nuclear activities, of course (I mean

peaceful nuclear energy and the peaceful atom in other areas),

as well as to ensure the interests of Israel from the point of

view of the unconditional security of the Jewish state. This is

a delicate issue, and, of course, you need to be very careful

here, but in my opinion, in general, such a solution can be

found."







ASKED IF HE WOULD BE WILLING TO SPEAK TO GERMANY'S MERZ:



"If the Federal Chancellor wants to call and talk, I have

already said this many times - we do not refuse any contacts.

And we are always open to this... At some point, when our

European partners decided to inflict a strategic defeat on us on

the battlefield, they themselves stopped these contacts. They

stopped, let them resume. We are open to them.



"I do doubt if Germany can contribute more than the United

States as a mediator in our negotiations with Ukraine. A

mediator must be neutral. And when we see German tanks and

Leopard (battle tanks) on the battlefield, and now we are

looking at the fact that the Federal Republic is considering

supplying Taurus (missiles) for attacks on Russian territory

using not only the equipment itself, but also using Bundeswehr

officers... Here, of course, big questions arise. It is well

known that if this happens, it will not affect the course of

hostilities, that is excluded. But it will spoil our

relationship completely.



"Therefore, today we consider the Federal Republic, just

like many other European countries, not a neutral state, but as

a party supporting Ukraine, and in some cases, perhaps, as

accomplices in these hostilities. Nevertheless, if we are

talking about a desire to talk about this topic, to present some

ideas on this subject, I repeat once again, we are always ready

for this."