The German board of the Petersburg Dialogue, a German-Russian public forum, will carefully consider the next step after a Russian court oredered to shut down Memorial, one of its oldest human rights organizations, board member Johann Wadephul said
BERLIN (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 31st December, 2021) The German board of the Petersburg Dialogue, a German-Russian public forum, will carefully consider the next step after a Russian court oredered to shut down Memorial, one of its oldest human rights organizations, board member Johann Wadephul said.
"The actions of the Russian state institutions show that they don't care about dialogue," Wadephul told Die Welt daily, adding that the German board "will have a detailed discussion about what our reaction can be."
Wadephul, a senior lawmaker in the conservative CDU party, said it was important to use every possibility to talk to Russia in the face of tensions over Ukraine. He said the West needed to find a balance between firmness and readiness for dialogue.
The forum was suspended in the summer after Russia designated three German nonprofits as undesirable and national security risks. Two of them are members of the Petersburg Dialogue, set up at the initiative of President Vladimir Putin and then German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder in 2001.
