At this meeting, the Western side was represented by representatives of the so-called “eurotrio” countries, which provide the most active diplomatic support to Ukraine: former UK National Security Advisor Tim Barrow, former German State Secretary Markus Ederer, and experienced French diplomat Pierre Vimont.
However, sources refused to name the former Kremlin official who participated in the discussion.
Informal discussions between former officials and think tank experts, even from countries that consider each other adversaries, are a common practice in international relations. Participants in such meetings act independently of their governments, trying to analyze possible ways to solve complex problems. Later, they may convey their expert opinion on the results of such discussions to governments.
According to one of the “Bloomberg” sources, the consultations in Vienna were initiated by the Swiss think tank “Humanitarian Dialogue Center,” which presents itself as a “forerunner of discreet, impartial, and independent mediation in conflict areas.” Both M. Ederer and P. Vimont are members of this center’s advisory board.
Representatives of this center told “Bloomberg” journalists that their organization “is always ready to support initiatives to establish dialogue that can contribute to conflict resolution and alleviate human suffering.”
According to the center’s statement, it usually “operates very discreetly to protect such initiatives, as they are often implemented independently, without any official involvement.”
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Meetings between Russian representatives and former German politicians have taken place several times in Baku, earlier reported the newspaper “Die Zeit” and the German ARD TV program “Kontraste,” based on their investigation results.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev confirmed that German and Russian officials who met in his country’s capital in July discussed ways to end the war in Ukraine.
However, according to “Die Zeit,” German security services view these meetings as a Russian operation aimed at influencing German politics. Similar views are held by other Western intelligence agencies.
In July, the Russian side, represented by Viktor Zubkov, who has worked with Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin for a long time, the so-called Human Rights Council chairman Valery Fadeev, and the director of the Russian Academy of Sciences’ European Institute Alexey Gromyko, apparently planned to make the Germans understand that ending the war in Ukraine is only possible on Russia’s terms and that the issue of normalizing German-Russian relations after the war should be considered, wrote “Die Zeit.”
