European and Russian diplomats held second secret meeting in Vienna

In July, a closed meeting of former senior officials from the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Russia took place in Vienna, focused on discussing the possibility of ending the war.

This was reported by Bloomberg, citing its own sources.

According to the outlet, the talks involved former UK National Security Adviser Tim Barrow, former German State Secretary Markus Ederer, and veteran French diplomat Pierre Vimont. Sources declined to reveal the name of the former Kremlin official who attended the meeting.

The official capitals of the participating countries declined to comment on the information. The exception was Germany’s Foreign Ministry, which stated that it was not aware of the discussions mentioned. The ministry stressed that the talks “were not conducted on behalf of the Federal Foreign Office and were not coordinated with it.”

According to Bloomberg, the meeting in Vienna was organized by the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue — a Swiss think tank whose board includes Ederer and Vimont. The Centre stated that it is always ready to support dialogue initiatives that can help resolve conflicts and alleviate human suffering, and that it often acts confidentially to protect such initiatives, as they are carried out independently, without any official involvement.

The Vienna meeting was already the second of its kind this summer. Earlier, also in July, a similar meeting of former German and current Russian officials took place in Baku.