Angela Merkel: Underestimating Putin would be a mistake — even now. But not believing in ourselves would be just as much a mistake. In my last European Council meeting in 2021, I pointed out that just a few days earlier President Biden had met President Putin in Geneva, and I proposed that we Europeans should also find a format to meet with President Putin. That failed at the time because people said, ‘No, on Russia policy we do not have a common position.’ And I think you then have to keep working until you do have a common position.