Germany opposed the tightening of the country's sanctions pressure against Russia, despite its provocative actions on the border with Ukraine and the situation around Russian oppositionist Alexei Navalny.
This was stated by German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas in an interview on the air of one of German TV channels.
In his opinion, it is important to support and continue the dialogue with Moscow, when the relationships between countries are tense.
“The relationship is really bad, but it shouldn’t be like that,” Maas said. According to him, the "sense of diplomacy" is to be able to have a dialogue even with those countries, with which relations are tense, not always to talk only to those countries which you do not have disagreements with. "This applies especially to Russia and specifically now," he explained.