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Germany should discuss easing sanctions on Moscow, a senior member of Friedrich Merz’s centre-right Christian Democrats has said, arguing that punitive measures were hurting Europe even more than Vladimir Putin.

Michael Kretschmer, the CDU premier in the east German state of Saxony, became the latest in a series of politicians from Europe’s largest nation to float the idea of resuming ties with Russia — a stance that prompted harsh criticism from supporters of Ukraine. 

Kretschmer said that the insistence by leaders in Germany and Europe on maintaining punitive measures against Moscow was “completely out of date and does not fit at all with what the Americans are doing right now”.

He told the German press agency DPA: “When you realise that you’re weakening yourself more than your opponent, then you have to think about whether all of this is right.”

Kretschmer, whose state of Saxony is a stronghold of support for far-right and far-left parties accused of harbouring sympathy for Putin, added: “A continuous discussion about which of these sanctions might be more detrimental to us than Russia should be possible,” he said. “But that isn’t happening.”

Kretschmer, who is also a long-standing opponent of weapons deliveries to Ukraine, is the latest in a string of figures from both Merz’s centre-right CDU and the centre-left Social Democrats to have gone public in recent weeks with calls to resume economic or energy ties with Russia. 

That has created a problem for Merz — who is all but certain to be Germany’s next chancellor — as well as for his likely coalition partners in the SPD at a time when he is trying to cast himself as a strong partner for Ukraine and for Europe.

Germany’s Green party, which is strongly pro-Kyiv, called on Sunday for Merz to clamp down on “friends of Putin” in his party. 

The party’s parliamentary co-leader Britta Haßelmann said that she was appalled by Kretschmer’s remarks and urged the CDU leader to get a grip on those seeking to revive Germany’s “Moscow connection” — a reference to the long-standing links between some parts of German business, finance and politics to Russia, which used to be the most important supplier of gas to the country.

The relationship was embodied by former SPD chancellor Gerhard Schröder, a close friend of Putin who was chair of the board of the state-owned Russian oil company Rosneft until eventually stepping down in May 2022 after Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. But some figures in the CDU have also long been advocates of economic ties with Russia and sceptics of military support for Kyiv.

“Friedrich Merz and the CDU leadership can no longer duck the issue and must finally take a clear stance on the revival of the Moscow connection,” Haßelmann said. “The time for keeping quiet on the issue is over.”

In recent weeks, several politicians from Germany’s two biggest centrist parties have publicly supported the idea of restoring economic ties with Moscow.

CDU MP Thomas Bareiß responded to reports — including in the Financial Times — on the possible resurrection of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline by writing a LinkedIn post praising “how business-minded our American friends are”.

He added: “When peace is restored and the weapons fall silent between #Russia and #Ukraine (and hopefully that will happen soon), relations will normalize, the embargoes will be lifted sooner or later and, of course, #gas can flow again, perhaps this time in a #pipeline under US control.”

Jan Heinisch, a CDU politician from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia who is part of the team leading coalition talks on energy, told Politico: “If a just and secure peace is found one day, then we must be allowed to talk again about buying Russian gas.”

High-profile members of the SPD have also addressed the idea, including Dietmar Woidke, the prime minister of the east German state of Brandenburg. He has called for a normalisation of Germany’s trade relations with Russia after a peace agreement, including in raw materials, saying: “I truly believe that economic relations can also contribute to improving relations between Europe and Russia overall.”