Germany does not expect concrete results from Chancellor Olaf Scholz's meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin this week but hopes to gain insight into what he hopes to achieve with the military build-up on the border of Ukraine, a German government source said on Sunday.
Scholz is set to travel on Tuesday to Moscow to meet Putin, hot on the heels of his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron, as part of a whirlwind of diplomatic meetings aiming to prevent a fresh Russian attack on Ukraine.
The source said Scholz would make it clear to Putin that the Western partners stood united in their stance that any aggression would prompt "painful, considerable sanctions" on Russia.
"He will also underscore that we are not just ready to dialogue, but we insist on de-escalation and the withdrawal of the troop build-up that can only be interpreted as a threat," the source said.
(Reporting by Andreas Rinke and Sarah Marsh; editing by Tom Sims)
