With Big Russia Interests, German Firms Look to Putin for De-Escalation

Lobbying by corporate leaders has been one factor behind the cautious approach adopted by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz since the start of the crisis, which has drawn criticism from Washington and some Eastern European countries. In turn, officials in Germany and other Western European countries have privately criticized the Biden administration for being too alarmist about the risk of a Russian invasion of Ukraine and adding to the tensions.

“Military escalation would have economic consequences. No one wants an escalation. The priority must be to achieve a resolution of the political conflict,” Christian Bruch, chief executive of Siemens Energy AG , told reporters during a news conference on Wednesday.

In addition to his corporate role, Mr. Bruch is a board member of the Eastern Committee of German Business, a business lobby group that represents the interests of German companies that are active in Russia and former Warsaw Pact countries.

The committee declined to disclose which of its members would attend the meeting with Mr. Putin, but the group’s members include many of Germany’s biggest companies, such as Siemens AG, Bayer AG, Deutsche Bank AG, SAP AG and Volkswagen AG .

The committee is hosting the meeting, scheduled for early March, with Mr. Putin, as it had done annually for years until the Covid-19 pandemic led to the cancellation of last year’s meeting. It declined to name the specific date of the meeting.

Republican and some Democrat lawmakers have accused Germany of being an unreliable ally for seemingly standing in the way of a tougher North Atlantic Treaty Organization response to Russia’s military buildup near the Ukrainian border.

Many have blamed the German economy’s dependence on Russian energy—the country imports more than half its gas from Russia—and the close economic ties between the two countries.

Michael Harms, the managing director of the committee, rejected suggestions that Germany was betraying its Western allies to favor its own economic interests.

“Germany is fulfilling all of its obligations within NATO and the European Union,” he told The Wall Street Journal in a recent interview, adding that the committee speaks closely with high-ranking officials in both Moscow and Kyiv.

“We are signaling to the Russian side that such a deployment of troops is not helpful for our economic relationship and that everything must be done to reduce this tension again,” he said.

Mr. Bruch dismissed suggestions that the meeting with Mr. Putin would play into the Russian leader’s hands at a time when NATO governments were trying to show a united front.

“I’ve always experienced these talks as an amazingly open format,” Mr. Bruch said, adding that representatives from the German government are always involved in the meetings.

Write to William Boston at [email protected]