Putin open to contact with European leaders – Kremlin

The remark came shortly after the second day of trilateral Russia-US-Ukraine talks ended in Abu Dhabi. European representatives, who traveled to the UAE to meet separately with Ukrainian and US delegates, have not been included in the negotiations.

The Russian president has not yet decided whether he will attend the next G20 Leaders’ Summit, Peskov said. The event is scheduled for December 14-15 in Florida, US.

“If [Putin] is there, I will not shy away from the opportunity to talk to him,” the German chancellor said last week.

However, at the G20 foreign ministers’ meeting in Atlanta last month, German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul refused to participate in a traditional group photograph alongside his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov. “We must avoid sending the wrong visual signal,” Wadephul told reporters.

Moscow has stressed that European demands have remained locked on an unconditional ceasefire in Ukraine – something which Russia has said would only serve to give Kiev breathing room and time to rearm with Western supplies.

Russian presidential aide and chief negotiator at the talks, Vladimir Medinsky, has accused Kiev’s Western European backers of engaging in the “collective deception of the Ukrainian people.”

European countries’ participation in the talks could be considered at some later stage in the process, Kremlin spokesman Peskov told journalists on Wednesday. “For the moment, the statements we hear from the Europeans do not indicate any desire on their part to contribute to progress along a peaceful path,” he said.