Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel has defended her policy towards Russia before the invasion of Ukraine in February, saying she got out of power to influence Vladimir Putin.
He said he had tried to convene European talks with the Russian president and French President Emmanuel Macron in the summer of 2021.
“But I didn’t have the strength to get my way,” he told JEE News.
“Everybody really knew: in the fall she would be gone,” he said.
After four terms as chancellor, Mrs Merkel stepped down in December. He last visited Moscow in August 2021, and told JEE News that “the feeling was very clear: ‘In terms of power politics you are finished’.”
“For Putin, only power counts,” he added.
He said it was significant that Mr Putin brought Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov with him for their last meeting. He noted that they had met one-on-one before.
In light of President Putin’s attack – which was preceded by weeks of massive military deployments along Ukraine’s borders – many say Mrs Merkel and other EU leaders should take a tougher stance on the Kremlin. should have
A foreign policy expert in his Christian Democrat (CDU) party, MP Roderick Keszwetter, is among those who say he knows Mr Putin is trying to divide and weaken Europe, but his I believe that “soft power” is the correct approach. He argued before the invasion that Germany was too dependent on Russian gas.
Mrs Merkel said her stance on Ukraine at the Minsk peace talks had bought Kyiv time to better defend itself against the Russian military.
Russia’s 2014 annexation of the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine and its proxy war in the Donbass region led to a ceasefire agreement in Minsk. But key points including disarmament and international monitoring were not implemented.
Mrs Merkel said she had no regrets about leaving office in December, as she felt her government was failing to make progress not only on the Ukraine crisis but also on the conflicts in Moldova, Georgia, Syria and Libya. Including all of Russia.
Both he and Mr Putin had direct experience of life in communist East Germany – he grew up there and he worked in secret intelligence there as a Soviet KGB officer. Mr. Putin speaks fluent German and Mrs. Merkel speaks some Russian.
