Russia never sought to sever ties with Germany: Kremlin

Russia has never supported severing relations with Germany, but cannot predict how far Berlin's leadership may go, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday.

"We have never been supporters of the reduction of relations," state news agency TASS reported, quoting Peskov. "How far the leadership of Germany can go, I wouldn't even predict something here now."

Speaking at a press briefing, Peskov also accused German Chancellor Friedrich Merz of damaging Germany by seeking to blame Russia for its problems, pointing to what he described as a decline in Germans' standard of living.

"This is an inexplicable, irrational, non-truth-oriented behavior of the head of the state, who by his actions causes significant damage to his state," he said. "We can see this from the German economy's loss of its competitiveness, from the decline in the standard of living of Germans."

Germany accused Russia of being responsible for last month's drone attack at Leipzig's airport, and ordered the closure of the Russian consulate in Bonn, and terminated the contract for the Russian House in Berlin. Russia, which denies involvement, announced retaliatory measures and closed the German consulate and Goethe Institut in St. Petersburg.

On Norway, Peskov said Moscow has never advocated curtailing bilateral relations and would respond to Oslo's plans to hold maritime security consultations with Russia by the end of the year.

Commenting on Japan's calls to dismantle a monument in Russia's Khabarovsk commemorating the Soviet victory over "militarist Japan" and the end of World War II, Peskov said: "It's hard to say what they forgot and what they remember in Tokyo, but at least we didn't forget. We didn't forget about real Japanese militarism, about that victory."

Peskov also criticized Japan's leadership for not mentioning the US during commemorations of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

"We note with astonishment that none of the leaders of Japan remembers the United States of America, the only country in the world that used nuclear weapons," he said.