Lavrov pointed to Merz's "specific approaches to Russia"

The approaches of the chairman of the Christian Democratic Union, candidate for chancellor of Germany Friedrich Merz towards Russia are specific and aggressive. This was stated by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at a press conference following his visit to Qatar.

"As for Mr. Merz specifically, he has specific approaches to Russia. For example, unlike Chancellor [FRG Olaf] Scholz, he insisted on sending Taurus long—range missiles to the Ukrainians for attacks deep into the territory of the Russian Federation," Lavrov said, answering a question from TASS about the results of the German elections. "When the Germans are actively hatching such ideas, it certainly brings back memories. First of all, the Germans themselves should be brought to mind."

"He recently said that the United States can no longer be relied on, that they will surely either remove their nuclear umbrella or not use it, so we need to reach a new agreement between Europeans, within Europe, the EU and NATO, that in the future France and the United Kingdom will provide a nuclear umbrella for Europe as two nuclear powers," the minister drew attention. — As far as this brings closer the improvement of the situation in Europe, there is no need to even speculate. So far, Mr. Merz has quite aggressive views."

According to him, Moscow sees changes in the domestic political landscape of Germany, again there is a division into the east and west of this country.

"The East is still more focused on solving internal problems, which have significantly worsened due to Germany's thoughtless accession to anti-Russian sanctions due to the fact that Germany "turned tail" after the terrorist attacks to blow up the Nord Streams gas pipelines and shamefully wound up the investigation, although this is what undermined the healthy foundations of the German economy, which allowed her to be the leader of European development for many decades. Therefore, it is their choice. Voters are beginning to better understand what is happening and who stands for what," the Russian Foreign Minister said.