austin or for a viewers or just joining us. welcome to our special live coverage chance for all of schultz and president vladimir putin as well are still speaking now at a press conference in moscow after their meeting, it was a very wide, raging exchange. we understand russian president, starting off the presser, by focusing on bilateral ties, and the chance of referring to a possible military conflict, said war is unthinkable with me here. listening into that all important press conference is richard walker. d w's chief international editor. so many i do have to look at my notes. i got all these notes here. let me just ask you a very open question in terms of, you know, we have all these leaders beating a path to mister putin. now it's the chancellor's moment. how did it strike you? yeah, well i think in terms of tone compared to some of the recent press conference that

we've conferences that we've seen in this diplomatic process, not just involving vladimir putin but also involving 2nd level of, of his foreign minister. the tone was pretty matter of fact ended times even sort of rather positive, talking about the positive sides of the relationship at some length, particularly in the early parts. but there were one or 2 moments where you really saw the gravity of the situation that the huge gap between these 2 leaders opening up and one or 2. in fact, one particularly quite direct clash, which i think we can probably get to in a few minutes but, but, but, but a real kind of clash over visions not just to was happening now. but visions of history in europe, where you really saw course, there is a yawning gap between these 2 men and yawning gap between them. let's talk about, i mean, this, this arc that you actually just talked about was really interesting because when it started off, it was very, it was, it was positive. i think the russian, a president was emphasizing the bilateral culture ties,

but also the economic ties and how they're intertwined. can you talk just a little bit more about that because at times it was a little painful. just how intertwined in terms of economic interest. well, yeah, and i certainly both of them really began with the, these were the positive sides, the relationship. but there was often an edge to what putin was saying. and of course, you know, that you would expect that to be the case. but for instance, just near the very beginning, vladimir putin was talking about his talks with all of shows and said that he believes all of shows wants to be pragmatic, with a view to economic relations between the 2 countries. which on the face of it, a sound perfectly reasonable, but of course, this is code. this is code for saying that all of shots is the kind of person who, for instance, well really want to put germany's major energy relationship with russia at risk. for instance, through the very controversial issue of this pipeline, which questions came up about of course, during the course of the press conference,

this pipeline node stream to this become a kind of flash point of the tensions between russia and the west and preaching at various points really making it clear that he expects this pipeline which has been completed but has not yet come into operation. he wants to see that coming into operation. then you watch how all of sholtes deals with that. now we've been covering this quite a bit recently on d. w. news, of course, that the difficult situation that all of shots finds himself in with regard to energy relations with russia and particularly this pipeline stream to because his party, the social democrats, historically, has seen itself as a bridge builder with russia north stream to makes landfall in a state which is governed by a very powerful member of the social demik democratic party. the party has been divided about whether this pipeline is really a good idea or not. sholtes is always try to brush the issue away in the past by saying this is just a business issue. but now he's on

a huge pressure from the american side of that is to say, of course, no strain to can't go ahead. if there is military action against you train, and it was interesting to see how he talked about this. he said on the one hand, that of course we have obliged ourselves to society to ensure that we have reliable energy supplies. but that if there is military action, everybody knows the political reality. he still, he couldn't actually say the words nor stream to he would pull the plug but heavily implied that, that he would do. so that one little kind of nugget, i think for the press conference they were, you saw vladimir putin trying to use what he saw as an in, with all our shops, with this personality on a shelf. one of shots trying to hold it back without putting all of his cars on the table. interesting, of course, at one point, i believe the president, the russian president, was making a direct pitch to german customers, essentially saying, you know, we are supplying you would really cheap gas do you really want to jeopardize? that's right, that's right. and interestingly, he said a very similar thing at

a press conference with it to all been just a week or 2 ago, the hungarian prime minister, who was there a similar kind of message trying to make it, make it clear from his point of view that the russia is giving europe a great deal of this energy. yes, a present bind is watching, as we think maybe he is doing watching this present france, where you clearly see a germany cart between its allies and its most important ally. i, the united states and its economic interests, which are with russia. do you think they're worried, reassure, to what you think they might feel watching? what was, you know, just said, i think they got from a law sholtes here pretty much what they would have expected from all of shells, all of sholtes, he's never going to, you know, take the real sort of forefront american line on things. he's never going to be writer out in front, taking the strongest line against russia. if he comes from this party is we just

said he's somebody who believes, generally in a sort of steady as she goes, approach to politics in general. and i think it crisis management as we are beginning to see in particular as well. so i don't think that the americans will necessarily be disconcerted by any of the things that all of show said here. for all of us, one thing we have to remember is, of course, yesterday he was in here and he was talking to vladimir to lensky, that the president of ukraine. and what he came to russia with from zalinski is a commitment to move ahead with drafting potential laws and arrangements for these breakaway republics in east ukraine, which are, which are a central part of this whole conflict. so that i think is an example of all our shows trying to serve as a mediator here, which germany has been doing in the context of the so called normative format between the germans, the french,

the russians and the ukrainians. to try to resolve this crisis of ukraine. so all of shots came to russia with potentially some movement from the ukranian side on that saying that they will move ahead with legislation that they want to go forward to try to fulfill some aspects of the so called minsk agreements, which would be part of that diplomatic process. vladimir putin, making it clear that he really expects a movement from the ukranian side there. there will be outside observers including some in ukraine here, who watched this and sort of thing. all right, this is potentially the germans extracting concessions from the ukrainians, where it's really is the russians holding the gun to the head here. should there really be any concessions to the russian so that there could be an element of concern there. but i think at the same time, anything that could unlock some movement on some of these diplomatic areas would be very welcomed. he seemed though, the russian president vladimir put very entrenched at the end,

where he said something along the lines we wish. we hope we strive, according to the translation, for things not to escalate, militarily, theory elusive, keeping that, you know, keeping people guessing. so not much has changed really. no, no diplomatic breakthrough here. yeah. i mean that, that also stuck in my mind. so this was when he was given the question about the withdrawals that we've been reporting on today, that the russians say they're beginning to withdraw withdraw some of the forces that have been involved in exercises in the region around ukraine. and a reporter in the press conference asked bruton, will there be more with withdrawals to come? and vladimir putin's answer to this was really quite, almost as explicit a statement of the threat that these troops have been presenting, as we've heard from him. he said essentially, well, how, what happens depends on what happens on the ground. i don't know what's going to

happen. i don't know what's going to happen in the process where we've been making demands of the west for security guarantees about nato, things like that. so almost making explicit this idea that these troops, which have been mass around cranes are a form of, of diplomatic pressure, military pressure to achieve a diplomatic goals. and essentially holding that threat of military action in the air almost as explicitly as we've really heard from him at all. now of course there are claims they're coming from oscar. their troops have some troops that have been returning to their base, and that's kind of the big development that's coming out today from the region. and this happened right before the bilateral meeting that we are reporting on. i mean, do we know if there is there evidence that this is actually happening? what do we know what you read in terms of this, this development? well, this is very early days. they're saying that this is really just begun against oldenburg,

the nato secretary general was speaking earlier, saying that he saw grounds for cautious optimism. i think this is the expression he used earlier, but they want to see real evidence of these movements really taking place. so i think over the next 2448 hours, we'll get a better sense of, of whether these movements really are happening. and of course, the question, where are they going to these troops? are they really going all the way back to base, or are they going to other for positions where they could potentially still pose a threat? so i think that's going to be something really to, to watch closely. but that i think it's interesting, it is kind of part of a very uncertain moment in this crisis that we've entered into. because of course, that if that really turns out to be true, that is the 1st escalation de escalation that we've seen in many weeks. we've been in this constant ratcheting of tensions of escalation with more and more troops coming into the region. more exercise is beginning ships coming into the region.

huge exercise is taking place in belarus. that's been a ratchet. there's been going in only one direction for many weeks now. this announcement that we've had today, if that is born out and that's the 1st who ratchet in the other direction. so of course, potentially grounds for cautious optimism that but at the same time there's been another development is happening in moscow today, which are russian department roman going to ranko, of course, was highlighting just earlier that the russian duma, the parliament in russia has passed resolutions calling on russia to recognize these breakaway republics in east and ukraine as independent states, if the kremlin followed along with that, that would be a huge escalation of this crisis beyond actually anything that we've seen so far, so really the ground moving in multiple directions. so i was going on, thank you. thank you for analysis. really valuable. thank you. thank you. richard walker is chief international editor. appreciate it. you've been watching our

special life coverage of statements of germany's chance all of shorts and rushes. president vladimir putin following a meeting in the crown. and here is a recap of what's been happening in the last few minutes schultz and couldn't have been holding a news conference after talks in moscow, schultz called russia's massing of troops, new ukraine's border. a threat to european security, you were wanting to use things hunting with

a pulse, a beginning of the story, moves and takes us along for the right. ah, it's own about the perspective. culture information. this is the w news and more d. w. made from mines. oh, and then the battle against cove it the only common variant is putting healthcare systems around the world to the test vaccination campaigns are accelerating while restrictions are intensifying

once again. but are these measures enough to stop the spread of omicron, fax, data and reports? it's you know, a weekly coping special every thursday on d w. m. skin that i want. that's hard and in the end it's a me, you are not allowed to see you anymore. we will send you back. are you familiar with this? with the smudges with lions, joseph, what's your story? ready he wasn't, i was women, especially victims of financing. a lot of them take part and send us your story. we are trying always to understand this new culture. so you are not a visitor, not the guests. you want to become a citizen in full migrants,

your platform for reliable information with. ah, ah, this is the only news live from burleigh. german chancellor, olaf shoulds calls for an urgency de escalation to avert war in ukraine. after face to face meeting with russian president vladimir putin, chancellor shaw says diplomacy is far from exhausted and lasting security in europe is only possible with russia president doing signals, his country is open to more talks. also coming up pulling back from the brink,

german chance a welcomes rushes announcement, it's withdraw.