Meseberg: Something Serious Is Coming

On August 14, the piece by Sergei Isaenko “Meseberg 2018. Putin Goes to Discuss the Transdniestrian Settlement” was published on our resource in which the author made assumptions about possible breakthrough decisionsafter the upcoming meeting of A. Merkel and V. Putin. Today, the Chancellor of Germany said that the meeting with the president of Russia would be of a working nature, so we should not wait any special outcomes. According to Merkel, Berlin wants to have good relations with Moscow and this will be the context for the meeting with the head of the Russian state. The comment by the German leader seemed to dispel all the expert intrigues surrounding Putin’s upcoming visit to Meseberg. Earlier, the German media had already tagged frequent contacts of A. Merkel with Russian representatives as “diplomatic betrayal”. However, today, the official website of the Russian president posted information that Vladimir Putin held a regular meeting with permanent members of the Security Council (mainly security chiefs), during which he discussed the upcoming talks with the Chancellor of Germany. The need for holding such meetings on the eve of an international visit can indicate only one thing: the Russian leader has consulted with security officials to make political decisions at the state level. The meeting was attended by the Chairwoman of the Federation Council ValentinaMatviyenko, Secretary of the Security Council NikolaiPatrushev, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev, Director of the Federal Security Service Alexander Bortnikov. The RTA will continue to follow developments around the scheduled meeting of two leaders in Meseberg on August 18th.