BERLIN, December 4. /TASS/. German business wants restoration of economic ties with Russia, while ordinary Germans advocate the normalization of bilateral relations, Russian Ambassador to Berlin Sergey Nechayev said in an interview for the Berliner Telegraph.
"We are open for the dialogue, we have never rejected it," he said. "We see the demand from the German business for restoration of economic ties, we see the demand of ordinary Germans for normalization of bilateral relations."
He also noted Russia "still has many friends in Germany." According to the envoy, this is justified, because Russia "did nothing bad to Germany."
He pointed out "the liberation from Nazism, the post-war reconciliation of our states, […] the brotherly relations with the East Germany, the development of mutually beneficial trade and economic ties with the Federal Republic of Germany, the reunification of Germany, the voluntary withdrawal for Soviet troops, the undeniable competitive advantage for the German economy from cheap Russian energy, the multifaceted contacts in culture and science, the wide inter-regional and inter-social dialogue" as positive examples of bilateral interaction.
"All this are stages of a big joint path, which the Western elites of today try to erase from the people’s memories, including by spreading rabid Russophobia in the media. But this is not an easy thing to do," Nechayev concluded.