 The ensuing discussion of a potential political deal between Germany and the Soviet Union had to be channelled into the framework of economic negotiations between the two countries because close military and diplomatic connections, as was the case before the mid-1930s, had been largely severed.In May, Stalin replaced his foreign minister from 1930 to 1939, Maxim Litvinov, who had advocated rapprochement with the West and who was also Jewish, with Vyacheslav Molotov, allowing the Soviet Union more latitude in discussions with more parties, not only with Britain and France.On 23 August 1939, two Focke-Wulf Condors, containing German diplomats, officials and photographers (about 20 in each plane), headed by Joachim von Ribbentrop, descended into Moscow.