Scholz’s reach shows that Germany’s Russia-friendly ‘Ruslandwurstehr’ is still a bridge – India Times Hindi News

This divergent Russia approach from centre-left Scholz (of the Social Democrats or SPD) and his flamboyant Foreign Minister Annalena Burbock and Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht embodies the ‘Russlandwurster’ (which favors engagement with Russia) in German politics. Lambrecht is also from the SPD, Baerbach is from the Greens party.

The first call between Baierbock and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was initiated by the German side on 14 December. When he first proposed “honest and open dialogue”, Bairbock was reconciling. “The territorial integrity of Ukraine must not be violated. Progress is needed in the Normandy format… a visa-free regime for young Russians and cooperation on hydrogen were also discussed.”

The Russian Foreign Ministry “emphasized its determination to build dialogue with the new government of Germany.” Lavrov upheld the Minsk Agreements as “the only basis”, appealing to Germany “as a member of the Normandy draft (to exert influence on the Ukrainian authorities)”. The United States itself advocates a “peaceful solution” and calls on Ukraine to “exercise restraint”, while at the same time focusing on North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) expansion to the east and increasing naval exercises in the Black Sea. focuses. emphasizes.

Blinken has threatened nothing beyond “high-impact sanctions”, “serious consequences”, while quietly approving the sale of Turkish drones to Kiev. Scholtz himself won the chancellorship, promising to continue the legacy of Merkel (who was from the Christian Democratic Union). “Putin Whisper” and Russian-fluent Merkel grew up in the former German Democratic Republic (East Germany), where she was part of the Communist Youth League. Former KGB chief Putin could also return the favor with all his German proficiency.

The Russlandversteher is the product of the Ostpolitik of then West German Chancellor Willy Brandt’s warm relations with the Soviet Union, which assisted in the reunification of Germany. According to Rolf Mutzenich, SPD leader in the Bundestag (parliament), a “smart foreign policy driven and envisioned by the chancellor” indicated that Scholz would have the last word. Despite former foreign minister and SPD leader Heiko Maas’s bigotry on Russia, Merkel herself successfully ensured the Nord Stream-2 gas pipeline was completed and lobbied for Biden to be lifted from sanctions.

The current German president of the SPD, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the far-left Die Linke and even the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) have a highly favorable view of Moscow. Free Democrats (FDP) Wolfgang Kubiki was also suspected of alleged Russian assassination attempts in Salisbury, UK, of his double agent, Sergei Skripal, and activist Alexei Navalny. Interestingly, the prospect of a full-fledged Russia confrontation also haunts Baz, as evidenced by Bairbock’s statement when she first visited Washington on January 5. The foreign minister, speaking with Anthony Blinken, warned Russia with “extremely high political and economic costs”. “The only way out of the crisis is through dialogue,” he said.

According to Moscow-based analyst Andrew Koribko, “Germany will still struggle with a sovereign policy with Russia.” Merkel herself succumbed to US pressure in March 2014 when she reacted adversely to sanctions against Moscow after intervening in a referendum for annexation of Crimea to Russia and supporting pro-Russian separatists in Donetsk and Lugansk. supported. The subsequent confusion of Merkel Germany is being exploited by France and Poland to lead the European Union and Central Europe. Macron joined both President Vladimir Putin in challenging Russia to the Black Sea.

Russlandversteher is often applied to the business communities that were affected after the US anti-Russian sanctions. “But they still advance the interests of both German and EU because neither Berlin nor Moscow will use Nord Stream-2 not only because of the strong buyer-seller stake, but also because it is the Kremlin’s claims.” will support.” Will reject that it is strictly apolitical,” Koribco said. That former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder is the chairman of Nord Stream 2’s parent company puts things in perspective.

But for Professor Glen Dessen of the University of South-Eastern Norway, “Wylie Brandt’s ostpolitik is long gone, and Russia has abandoned Gorbachev’s dream of a common European home.” Ironically, it was Gorbachev’s acceptance of reunification against which he was promised non-German NATO forces and military formations absent from the former GDR.

Despite promises to do so according to declassified documents, NATO continued to expand under Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton. Following the illegal and disastrous invasion of Yugoslavia, rejecting a pro-Russian referendum in Crimea, while openly supporting an uprising against the democratically elected pro-Russian Viktor Yanukovich, was no less provocation for Russia.

Russian anti-Ukrainian nationalists have links with neo-Nazi groups in World War II, where they took part in the German Wehrmacht as well as anti-Semitic genocide, a post-war ‘German crime’. Astonishing astonishing. Taking a tough stance on Russia should not mean Europe’s largest economy. And as America’s great power rivalry with China and Russia grows, the gap between the two most consequential nations of Eurasia will usher in a lasting peace in Europe.

(The author is a freelance researcher and journalist covering military affairs at the intersection of foreign policy, economics, technology, society and history. Views expressed are personal and do not reflect official position or policy) financial express onlineReproduction of this material without permission is prohibited).