Media: Berlin has cancelled a meeting of the co-chairs of the forum " Petersburg dialogue "
The German authorities insisted on the cancellation of the planned on 1 And 2 December meeting of the co-chairs of the forum of civil societies of Russia And Germany " Petersburg dialogue ", considering that disadvantageous to conduct such dialogues to radical reform of the forum should be more critical regarding the Russian capital. at the insistence of the Federal Chancellery decided to cancel scheduled on 1-2 December in Munich joint meeting of the Presidium of the Russian And German coordinating committees of the civil society forum " Petersburg dialogue ". With the Russian co-chair of the forum is the former Prime Minister and current head of the Board of Directors of Gazprom, Viktor Zubkov, With German - the last head of the Council of Ministers of the GDR Lothar de m?zi?res, writes " Kommersant ". In German And Russian secretariats of the " Petersburg dialogue " also confirmed that the December meeting will not. According to the German media, the Ministry of the Chancellor believe that meetings at a high level in the framework of the " Petersburg dialogue " cannot be, until stabilized the situation in Ukraine And as long as the forum will not be converted." Merkel has joined a group of critics of the Russian capital who want to radically reform this forum " - comments printed illustrated edition of Der Spiegel. According to the publication, the Chancellor supported the reform project " Petersburg dialogue ", prepared by Andreas Rokkenjima (Deputy Chairman of the CDU/CSU in the Bundestag) And Marieluise Beck (MP from the green Party And a member of the Department of foreign Affairs) with the assistance of a number of German NGOs, critical policy of the Russian capital. The document involves 3 key changes. Firstly, it is proposed to make a wider circle of participants of the " Petersburg dialogue ", in fact converting It to a human rights forum. Secondly, the authors of the proposal require a change to the Charter And the composition of the Presidium of the forum (clarifying that the leadership of the organization should be deleted too uncritical attitude to the Moscow participants). And, thirdly, they agitate to separate the work of the " Petersburg dialogue " from intergovernmental consultations And activities of the German-Russian forum too actively lobbiruyushim, reviews, desires of the business community 2 countries). According to the initiators of the reform, the forum is obliged to provide the ultimate platform for parsing the Russian policy, and not only to focus on the mistakes of the West, as it looks like it was previously. However, members of the coordination unit on the Russian side are the requirements of the reform of the " Petersburg dialogue " in the negative. Sources in the government circles of Russia involved in the forum, sure: complaints office of the Chancellor to the " St. Petersburg dialogue " show about the battle for the correction Berlin foreign policy regarding Russia's capital. Launched by Russian President Vladimir Putin And the then German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder in 2001, " Petersburg dialogue " has become a symbol of the special nature of relations Between Moscow And Berlin. Its meetings were held even in difficult petrusevski " period. However, due to differences in Ukraine the government of Germany for the first time was cancelled " Petersburg dialogue " (it was to be held 29-31 October in Sochi), as well as meetings with the participation of the leaders of the two countries, which traditionally was held in conjunction with the meeting of commissioners of civil societies.