German-Russian forum urges quick deescalation in Ukraine

Civil society representatives from Germany and Russia on Wednesday urged both sides in the Ukraine crisis to work toward deescalation and keep the lines of communication open.

The so-called Petersburg Dialogue, a forum of around 200 political, business, media and cultural leaders, said it was urgent that an accord struck last week in Geneva to defuse the turmoil in Ukraine be implemented.

“We are convinced that a sustainable resolution of the dangerous conflict in Ukraine can be achieved when, in the spirit of the Geneva accord, both sides contribute to deescalation step-by-step,” the German coordinators of the forum said in a statement released at the meeting in the eastern city of Leipzig.

They said it was crucial that “all illegal and armed groups in all of Ukraine be disarmed immediately and verifiably and all illegal and occupied buildings and squares be cleared”.

Russia’s chief coordinator, former prime minister Viktor Zubkov, acknowledged there were “significant differences between Russia and our Western partners when it comes to Ukraine”.

But he underlined Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s commitments made in Geneva with representatives from Ukraine, the United States and the European Union.

The Petersburg Dialogue was launched in 2001 by then German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and Russian President Vladimir Putin to put relations between the two countries on a broader footing.

It holds a forum once a year, usually on the sidelines of a meeting of the two governments.

However the planned parallel summit of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Putin this month was axed following Russia’s annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea.

Merkel’s spokesman Steffen Seibert told reporters earlier that the government would only be a “guest” at the forum and that it would discuss “what unites us and what occasionally divides” Germany and Russia.

Participants at the debate on “Civil Society and Peace Efforts from 1914 to Today” said they aimed not to let a deep freeze set in.

Zubkov noted that Germans and Russians had fought side by side against Napoleon in Leipzig at the start of the 19th century before becoming mortal enemies in two world wars 100 years later.

“It is our duty to ensure that this never happens again,” he said.