Russia

“Strong tendencies to divide Russia's and Germany’s civil societies”

Picture: picture alliance / dpa / Uwe Zucchi
 

The German public radio station Deutschlandfunk today reported on the perspectives of the German-Russian Petersburg dialogue forum, which is currently taking place near Bonn, Germany.

In the report, Petersburg dialogue board member and EPDE Chair Stefanie Schiffer states: "The Petersburg dialogue is an institution which has the aim of bringing German and Russian civil societies together, but if you look at the facts and the political development and recent administrative and legal steps, you can see that there are very strong tendencies to divide the civil societies apart."

Deutschlandfunk recalls that as EPDE Chair, Schiffer has experienced the exact opposite of dialogue and cooperation: On 13 March 2018, EPDE and its Lithuanian member IESC were listed as "undesirable organizations" by the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation.

Several international institutions and actors have protested since against the listing.

Only a few days ago, the co-chairman of Petersburg dialogue, Ronald Pofalla, announced that he will once again demand EPDE’s removal from this list at the meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov today.

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