Kremlin Says Putin Willing to Engage Europe, Including Merz

The signal here is the opening itself, not any concrete plan: a willingness to talk, offered without a timeframe or format, is the cheapest kind of diplomatic gesture and carries little operational weight on its own. For European governments and markets exposed to the region, the read-through is limited until contact is actually scheduled or given scope. Whether the offer moves beyond a general statement into defined channels is the open question, and the absence of specifics in the Kremlin's own wording is the tell worth watching.