MOSCOW, Nov 15 (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin told

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Friday that Russia was ready to

look at energy deals if Berlin was interested, the Kremlin said,

in their first phone conversation since December 2022.

It said the two men had a "detailed and frank exchange

of views" on Ukraine and that Putin had set out the same

position he has been stating for months: any peace deal must

address Moscow's security interests and be based on "new

territorial realities" - a reference to the fact that Russian

troops control a fifth of the country.

Putin also spoke of an "unprecedented degradation" in

relations between the two countries, for which he blamed

unfriendly actions by Germany, a Kremlin statement said.

"It was emphasized that Russia has always strictly

fulfilled its treaty and contractual obligations in the energy

sector and is ready for mutually beneficial cooperation if the

German side shows interest in this."

Germany was heavily reliant on Russian gas before the

war, but direct shipments ceased when the Nord Stream pipelines

under the Baltic Sea were blown up in 2022.

Germany and other European Union countries have imposed

successive waves of sanctions on Russia over the war and taken

steps to wean themselves off their dependence on Russian oil and

gas.

On Ukraine, the Kremlin said Putin's stance was the one

that he stated in June, when he said that the war could end if

Kyiv gave up its NATO ambitions and handed over the entirety of

four regions claimed by Russia. Ukraine rejected those

conditions as tantamount to surrender.

"Possible agreements should take into account the

interests of the Russian Federation in the field of security,

proceed from new territorial realities, and most importantly,

eliminate the root causes of the conflict," the Kremlin said.