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War in Ukraine. Angela Merkel believes she no longer has the “power to influence” Vladimir Putin

During her farewell visit to Russia in July 2021, Angela Merkel felt that she no longer had “impact on the President of Russia,” he told the reporter of the German daily Der Spiegel, November 24. Vladimir Putin would understand that “power», he”was over“, though “For Putin, only power is importantIn the words of the former Chancellor of Germany.

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According to him, the decline in his power to influence Putin was evident during this visit due to the presence of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov at the meeting table, when the two leaders were often “private conversations“before.

The two leaders had a special affinity because of their past experiences in the former GDR. Angela Merkel grew up in this USSR-allied state during the Cold War, before the fall of the Berlin Wall, when Vladimir Putin worked there as a spy for the KBG. In addition, Angela Merkel speaks Russian fluently and her Russian counterpart speaks German, which facilitated their exchanges.

Russia’s war was not in UkraineA surpriseFor Merkel. The Minsk agreements, signed under Franco-German auspices in 2015 to end the war between Kiev and Moscow-backed pro-Russian separatists in the Donbass, “emptied of their substanceAccording to him, it is a clear way to say that these agreements were not respected by Russia and Ukraine.

Angela Merkel also returned to the aborted Franco-German attempt in June 2021 in her interview to promote a new independent dialogue between Europe and Russia. The failure of this initiative, he said, made him realize that his power of persuasion within the European Council is waning as he approaches the end of his fourth term as chancellor. “Everyone knew I was going in the fall, so many people were against me“, he said.

Merkel defends her foreign policy choices

As in April last year, the former chancellor defended his policy towards Russia. He does not regret the decision he made jointly with French President Nicolas Sarkozy in 2008 to refuse Ukraine’s immediate entry into NATO at the Bucharest summit. He even draws striking parallels with former British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain to defend his policies. Considered in collective memories as a political embodiment of strategy tranquility» During the interwar period with Nazi Germany, in September 1938 with French Council President Edouard Daladier for initialing the Munich Agreements, which enabled Hitler to annex the Sudetenland, a region of Czechoslovakia, Angela Merkel believes that Chamberlain actually delayed the war. was somehow inevitable.

It was after watching a documentary that traces the history of the Munich Agreements titled “The edge of warthat the ex-Chancellor had found that Chamberlain was not worthy of his reputation, and had at last succeeded in preparing his country for war by delaying its outbreak. According to Merkel, her policy towards Russia, Ukraine’s refusal to join NATO and the Minsk agreements of 2014-2015 to end the conflict in Donbas, would have had the same effect for Ukraine and would have made Kiev better off. to protect itself by delaying the Russian invasion as much as possible.

Finally, Angela Merkel defended herself in her interview that she did not pay enough attention to Ukraine after the Maidan uprising and the annexation of Crimea in 2013-2014. “People write about 2013 and 2014 as if I had no other topic than the Minsk agreements and ask: “How could you take your eyes off Ukraine?” But that’s too simple. In Germany we had elections, there was always something going on Greece thenand I broke my pelvis”He said, referring to an injury he suffered on a 2014 ski vacation. With US President Barack Obama.We tried everything after Russia’s annexation of Crimea to prevent further Russian invasion of Ukraine“, he finally added.

The announcements come as the legacy of the Merkel years on the Rhine is increasingly being questioned, particularly as German dependence on Russian gas has been established during this period, typified by the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines (the latter never entering in service), while Russia’s invasion of Ukraine prompts Europe to seek new gas suppliers.

Source: Le Figaro

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