Former German officials ‘held secret meetings’ with Putin allies in Abu Dhabi and Baku
Tymon Miller
Edited by: Edward Wight
05.12.2025, 15:49
The group has met at least four times since early 2024. Photo: Thomas Janisch/Contributor/Getty Images
Former German officials and Russian government allies have held a series of confidential meetings in Abu Dhabi and Baku aimed at preserving back-channel contact despite strained bilateral relations.
The latest meeting, held in Abu Dhabi in early November, brought together former Chancellery Minister Ronald Pofall, German-Russian Forum head Martin Hoffmann and former Brandenburg premier Matthias Platzeck, according to a report by German weekly.
All three are associated with Germany’s two main governing parties, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the Social Democratic Party (SPD), which together form the ruling coalition.
The Russian side was said to include Viktor Zubkov, chairman of Gazprom’s supervisory board and Valery Fadeyev, the Kremlin’s human rights commissioner, who remains under EU sanctions and is barred from entering the bloc.
A cultural envoy for President Vladimir Putin, Mikhail Shvydkoy, was said to have canceled attendance.
The group, which has met at least four times since early 2024, discussed ways to revive the long-dormant Petersburg Dialogue, a civic exchange forum launched in 2001 but formally suspended by Berlin in 2021.
According to Die Zeit, German participants told their Russian counterparts that Pofalla and Hoffmann planned to travel to Moscow in early December, and that a return visit to Germany by Shvydkoy might be considered.
The Russian side had pushed for such a visit, the paper said.
The report adds that Pofalla had asked State Secretary Géza Andreas von Geyr at the Foreign Ministry whether Shvydkoy could receive a German visa. Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul (CDU) is said to have approved the idea.
If granted, it would mark the first visit to Germany by a Russian government representative since Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The Foreign Ministry told Die Zeit it had no plans to revive the Petersburg Dialogue and reaffirmed support for the EU’s restrictive visa policy toward Russia. It did not answer whether Shvydkoy’s visa request was being processed. Pofalla, Hoffmann and Platzeck did not respond to the paper’s inquiries.
Some German politicians and analysts warned that any such visit would undermine Berlin’s stance toward Moscow.
Stefan Meister of the German Council on Foreign Relations told Die Zeit that allowing Shvydkoy into Germany would undercut sanctions and “violate” Berlin’s principles.
Shvydkoy, a longtime cultural mediator, has maintained ties in Europe and met Alternative for Germany (AfD) co-leader Alice Weidel in 2021.
In July, he wrote in the state-aligned Rossiyskaya Gazeta, advocating Soviet-style censorship rules.
He has traveled in recent years to countries including Hungary, Austria and Slovakia, but has not visited Germany for some time. His office told Die Zeit he was “too busy” to comment on possible travel plans before year-end.
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