Dr Meister argued that since the Russia-Ukraine conflict, there has been an alienation and deep loss of trust in German-Russian relations. He discussed German support of the Nord Stream 2 Natural Gas Pipeline and argued that the last meeting of Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Vladimir Putin in Meseberg in August 2018 was characterised by a more pragmatic approach in German-Russian relations with less emphasis on Ukraine.
About the Speaker:
Dr Stefan Meister is Head of the Robert Bosch Center for Central and Eastern Europe, Russia and Central Asia at the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP). Previously, he worked as a senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR). He has served as an election observer for the OSCE in post-Soviet countries several times and was responsible for University projects in Russian regions, particularly in Kaliningrad. For the term 2015/16, Dr Meister was visiting fellow at the Transatlantic Academy in Washington, D.C., writing on Russian disinformation and propaganda.
