German Foreign Minister Annalena Burbock said that dialogue between countries is always important, but now there are no platforms for communication with the Russian Federation.
“There should always be dialogue,” she said on Sunday in Berlin following an informal meeting of NATO foreign ministers, answering a question.
According to her, NATO, as a transatlantic alliance, stands for a world order based, among other things, on dialogue. But at present, she claims, there are no platforms for communication with the Russian Federation. The last platform was the OSCE format.
Burbock believes that “even this last dialogue platform was liquidated by the Russian side.”
The German concern Siemens will leave the Russian market as a result of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the company said in a statement.
Siemens has begun the process of terminating its manufacturing and operating activities.
Siemens recalled that after the start of the Russian war in Ukraine, the company suspended all new operations and international deliveries to the Russian Federation and Belarus. International sanctions and potential countermeasures affect the company’s activities in Russia, in particular, railway maintenance and repair.
Siemens has decided to conduct an orderly exit process from Russia, CEO Roland Bush is quoted as saying.
“We evaluate the impact on our people and will continue to support them to the best of our ability. At the same time, we provide humanitarian assistance to our colleagues and the people of Ukraine and support the calls of the world community for peace,” said the head of Siemens.
At the moment, the Siemens circuit includes, in particular, operations in the field of automation and digitalization for industry, intellectual infrastructure, transport, and distributed power systems. In 2020, the company held a spin off, as a result of which the energy division was separated into a separate Siemens Energy company (as of the end of November 2021, Siemens was the largest shareholder with a 35% share).
Thus, two separate companies are represented in the Russian Federation – Siemens and Siemens Energy.
In Russia, Siemens Energy is one of the main suppliers of power equipment. The company, in particular, owns Siemens Transformers and 65% in a joint venture with Power Machines – Siemens Gas Turbine Technologies (STGT). Siemens Gamesa, also part of Siemens Energy, is a partner of Enel Russia (MOEX: ENRU) in implementing renewable energy projects in Russia.
In addition, in Russia, Siemens and the Sinara group operate a joint venture LLC Ural Locomotives, which serially produces freight mainline DC electric locomotives with a collector traction drive 2ES6 Sinara and with an asynchronous 2ES10 Granit, as well as electric trains Lastochka “and main AC electric locomotives 2ES7.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, in a telephone conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday, received information about the “current situation and the negotiation process” between Russia and Ukraine, according to a press release from the German government.
“The chancellor was informed about the current situation (in Ukraine) and about the negotiation process between Ukraine and Russia, designed to end the conflict,” the document says.
Scholz and Zelensky also discussed “concrete, practical ways” to provide further assistance to Ukraine and “agreed to remain in close contact.”
In addition, according to the document, Scholz “expressed condolences in connection with the death of the first president of independent Ukraine, Leonid Kravchuk.”
Software company TeamViewer has announced the complete cessation of its operations in Russia and Ukraine due to the Russian special operation in Ukraine.
“We have decided to completely phase out any remaining business activity in Russia and Belarus,” the company said in statement on its website.
“On top of compliance with all international sanctions and immediately having stopped new business, we also do not prolong any contracts with customers from Russia or Belarus,” the company said.
Existing subscriptions outside the scope of sanctions which are not affiliated with an unrightful usage of our products will be honored until contract-end but will not be renewed afterwards.
“Moreover, TeamViewer has blocked all unlicensed connections to and from Russia and Belarus to avoid any further usage of our software,” the company said.
TeamViewer (headquartered in Göppingen, southern Germany) is a manufacturer of software for remote access, remote management and remote maintenance of computers and other end devices.