Merkel says Europe had power vacuum at the end of her term to deal with Putin

Angela Merkel, who was Germany’s prime minister from 2005 to 2021, said she was “out of power” to influence Russian President Vladimir Putin in the final stretch of his term, according to a report published by the German magazine Der Spiegel.

On her last official visit to Moscow in August 2021, when she met Putin in the Kremlin, Merkel said she realized that “in terms of political power, it was over”. And she added: “[E] for Putin, only power counts”.

The former German leader used to talk alone with the Russian counterpart, but said that, in this last meeting, he brought his Minister of Foreign Affairs, Serguei Lavrov, to the meeting.

Attempt to involve the EU failed

Merkel, who has been criticized for not admitting mistakes in her policy towards Russia when she headed the German government, told Der Spiegel that, towards the end of her government, she tried to convince other European leaders of the need to establish a new format for talk to Putin about Ukraine, but he realized that he no longer had the influence to do so.

She said the Minsk Accords, created to prevent tensions escalating between Moscow and Kiev after the annexation of the Crimean peninsula in 2014, had been deflated.

According to Merkel, in mid-2021, after a meeting between Putin and US President Joe Biden, she tried, alongside French President Emmanuel Macron, to establish an independent European dialogue with the Russian leader within the framework of the Council of the European Union. , but was unsuccessful.

“Some objected, and I no longer had the strength to impose myself, because everyone knew that I would leave in the autumn. [do hemisfério Norte]”, he said, referring to the German elections in September last year.

Merkel is said to have asked other EU Council leaders: “‘Why [você] does not manifest? Say something.’ One replied: ‘That’s too big for me.’ The other just shrugged, ‘That’s what the big guys should do.’ If I were a candidate again in September, I would have insisted more”.

German politicians are also reported to share former US President Barack Obama’s assessment of Putin. “After Moscow’s annexation of Crimea, we tried everything to prevent further Russian incursions into Ukraine and coordinated our sanctions in detail.”

End of ‘euphoric phase’ in history

She assessed that the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which began in February 2022, marked the end of a “euphoric phase” of history. “Today we are facing a world that is once again full of complications,” Merkel said. “History doesn’t repeat itself, but I think patterns do repeat. The horror disappears with the witnesses. But so does the spirit of reconciliation.”

The former prime minister said Berlin should not be the first to send the most modern tanks to Ukraine because “it is still possible to create a good feeling towards Germany” in Russia.

At the same time, he praised the resistance of Ukrainians and expressed admiration for Kazakhstan’s president, Kassim-Jomart Tokayev, who refused to support Putin’s war. “I think it takes incredible strength for a man like that to stand up against Russia.”

It was time for a ‘new approach’

The former German prime minister said she had no regrets about not running for another term. “Someone new had to take over. Internal policy was already old. And in foreign policy in the end I hadn’t achieved a millimeter of progress in so many things that we insistently tried,” she said. “Not just about Ukraine. Transdnistria and Moldova, Georgia and Abkhazia, Syria and Libya. It was time for a new approach.”

Then he pondered: “But you can’t now pretend that it’s only necessary to have the right attitude that will work”. Questioned by Der Spiegel if he was referring to Germany’s current foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, and her values-oriented foreign policy, Merkel just managed a small smile and fell silent.

Elsewhere in the interview, politics warned against making too high demands on other countries in foreign policy. “We have to be careful not to set the bar so high that in the end there’s no one left who can meet our standards.”