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Senator expects no breakthrough in Russian-German relations under new German government

The trends that are seen now "both in relations between Russia and Germany and between West and East are processes that run deeper" than what is defined by any particular political force in an individual country, Konstantin Kosachev notes

MOSCOW, November 8. /TASS/. Konstantin Kosachev, Russian Federation Council vice speaker, said he doesn’t anticipate noticeable shifts in Russian-German relations after the creation of a new government coalition is completed in Germany.

"I’ll start by stating that, to be honest, I don’t expect any serious changes in our relations (neither for the better nor for the worse) due to the change in the government coalition in Germany," he said at the opening of the Potsdam Meetings conference on Monday.

The trends that are seen now "both in relations between Russia and Germany and between West and East are processes that run deeper" than what is defined by any particular political force in an individual country, Kosachev said.

Referring to Angela Merkel’s 16 years as German chancellor, he said: "A lot has changed and we all can see that. It changed for the worse and we all can also see that. But the blame hardly lies with Ms. Angela Merkel or any government coalition over these 16 years," he went on to say. "What’s more, I completely sincerely want to give my compliments to the outgoing German political leadership because that leadership held Germany away from greater radicalism in the position toward Russia - unlike what happened in many other countries."

For instance, the Federation Council vice speaker drew attention to the significant worsening of relations between Russia and the US, Poland, and Ukraine. "Needless to say, the degradation of Russian-German relations is showing considerably less, with all the reported aggravations in these relations, and that’s obviously attributable to the German leadership," he said.

At the Bundestag elections on September 26, the SDP won by collecting 25.7% of the vote, while the conservative CDU/CSU bloc got 24.1%, the worst result in its history. The liberal Free Democratic Party garnered 11.5% of the vote, and the Greens 14.8%, the right-wing populist Alternative for Germany 10.3%. Also, The Left party made it to the Bundestag thanks to winning three direct constituencies, although it collected only 4.9% of the vote. The Social Democrats, Greens and liberals are now holding talks to create a new government coalition.