In an interview at the top of the front page of the Süddeutsche Zeitung (pictured below), the new German chancellor, Social Democrat Olaf Scholz, says that any sanctions against Russia for actions against Ukraine need to be decided with “prudence”.
“We have to consider the consequences this will have for us,” he says, adding that no one should think that there are measures that are ineffective for Germany. The interview closes a week in which Berlin has resisted pressure from Washington to sever economic ties with Moscow.
It started when CIA Director William Burns traveled to meet Scholz — and heard the German denial of Russia’s suspension of the Swift global payments service. It was the exclusive headline of German financier Handelsblatt.
He would also have heard Scholz’s refusal to meet “at the last minute” with Joe Biden, according to a cover story in Der Spiegel magazine. The argument would have been that “the next few days are already scheduled with important trips and meetings”. The meeting was delayed for a month.
OPPOSITION ALSO
Scholz was supported by the two leaders of the right-wing opposition. Friedrich Merz of the CDU told German news agency DPA that Russia’s exclusion “would basically break the backbone of the international payments system” with “enormous consequences for the economy” of his country.
CSU’s Markus Söder, in an interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on Sunday, spoke out not only against Russia’s exclusion of Swift, but against sanctioning the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. with Russia, he argued, adding:
“At some point, the West will have to answer the key question: is there a plan to expand NATO to include Ukraine or not?”
BORIS MUSCULOSO
Without Berlin, the American news entered the weekend with London signals. “UK says Moscow is planning to install a pro-Russian leader in Ukraine,” the New York Times said on its website.
He then lowered attention, adding in an analysis that “in the midst of Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s scandals”, his government “seeks a more muscular role in the standoff with Russia”.
In parallel, the London Times profiled the “far-right warriors ready for war with Russia”, interviewing a member of the Right Sector militia newly decorated by the president as a Hero of Ukraine.
RUSSIA & CHINA
The South China Morning Post and the Nikkei’s English-language edition, this one with a photo of the port of Kaliningrad (above), made headlines for Beijing and Moscow “closer than ever” in the face of “hostile Washington”.
Bilateral trade jumped 36% last year, and Vladimir Putin’s presence alongside Xi Jinping this month for the Winter Olympics “may include a final contract” to build the second gas pipeline between the two countries.
The first was opened in 2019. The second would use the same reserves as the gas sent to the European Union and would be an alternative for Russian economic defense, in case of sanctions against Nord Stream 2.
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