The Latvian president replied to Merkel: Yes, there are different opinions, and they have always been

President of Latvia Edgars Rinkevics commented on the statements of the former German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that in 2021, Poland and the Baltic states allegedly prevented negotiations with Russia, which affected the further course of events in Ukraine. The Latvian president was quoted by the media Delfi.

Rinkēvičs, who at the time served as Latvia's foreign minister, said that "when my memoirs come out, there may be something interesting in them as well."

"But seriously, I think we have forgotten in this crazy time that there were many discussions in 2021, it's not a big secret," he said.

The Latvian president recalled that in the spring of 2021, when Russian troops were concentrated near the Ukrainian border, the Baltic foreign ministers and representatives of other states went to Kyiv to discuss support programs.

According to him, this was forgotten during the war, but in 2021, various ideas were expressed and it was absolutely clear that the Minsk agreements were not working and Russia was not going to fulfill them.

In general, the position of Poland and the Baltic states, which then clearly stated that Russia does not want to talk to the united European Union and will do everything to split its position, was correct, the official said. Rinkēvičs noted that the issue then was finding a format in which Russia would talk to the EU as a whole rather than to individual countries, which it had been avoiding.

He added that Poland and the Baltic states talked about it in 2016, in 2021, and are talking about it now.

According to Rinkēvičs, it is possible that attention is now focused on this topic again because the EU is still finding it difficult to formulate a unified position. This diversity of opinions is evident in the discussion on the use of frozen Russian assets to support Ukraine and in the adoption of the next package of sanctions.

"In fact, yes, there are different opinions, and they have always been there," the president said.

According to him, some EU and NATO member states are better aware of the risks posed by Russia, some are less so, and the countries also have different economic situations, which affects the variation of opinions.

Rinkēvičs recalled that after February 2022, many Western politicians admitted that they had not listened to the opinions of Poland and the Baltic states, and they were right, "and this is a fact."

He stated that Russia "doesn't want to talk" and is issuing ultimatums.

"And let's not forget that in 2020-2021, there were quite a few such ultimatums – regarding Ukraine, NATO, and others. But I think that when the politicians of Poland and the Baltic states who are still active retire, write memoirs and give interviews, you will hear a lot more," the politician summarized.

In a recent interview with the Hungarian resource Partisan Merkel said that in 2021 she and French President Emmanuel Macron wanted to organize negotiations between the EU and the Russian dictator Vladimir Putinbut allegedly the Baltic states and Poland opposed it.

"But not everyone supported it. First of all, the Baltic states and Poland were against it, fearing that there is no common policy towards Russia. I think we should work on such a common policy," Merkel said.

• On October 6, in response to Merkel's statement the Foreign Minister reacted Estonia. He said that Russia's war against Ukraine is due to only one reason – Moscow's refusal to recognize the collapse of the USSR and its "unquenchable imperialist ambitions."
• On the same day, Polish Foreign Minister Sikorski denied the accusations Merkel and mentioned Nord Stream to her.