The federal president Frank-Walter Steinmeier He acknowledged that he had made mistakes in his policy towards Russia in the past, and admitted that he had misjudged Vladimir Putin.
Speaking to reporters at the Bellevue Presidential Palace earlier today, Steinmeier, who is considered one of the architects of German policy toward Russia from the post of foreign minister and chancellor under Gerhard Schroeder, described the “clear-cut” his dedication on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. “We were stuck on bridges that Russia no longer believed in and that our partners had warned us about.”said the federal president.
As for the war in Ukraine, Steinmeier said he did not believe “Vladimir Putin would not accept the complete economic, political and moral catastrophe of his country in order to satisfy his imperial fantasy.”. “At this point I was wrong, like others,” he said, adding that he was now in the awkward position of giving a “bitter account”: “We have failed to create a common European home, which would include Russia. “We have failed in our attempt to bind Russia to a common security architecture.”
According to the federal president, Putin is responsible for the war, but the West should also think about its mistakes. Vladimir Putin’s responsibility for the war “should not be blamed on ourselves – but that does not mean that we do not need to rethink some of the things that we have done wrong. “But one thing is clear: with a Russia under Putin, there will be no return to the pre-war status quo,” Steinmeier said. .
Merkel has not been placed
Former Chancellor Angela Merkel has not yet commented on developments in Eastern Europe, but her spokesman said today that she “insists on her decisions regarding the 2008 NATO Summit in Bucharest”. Earlier, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had invited her and former French President Nicolas Sarkozy to visit the town of Butcha, where hundreds of civilian bodies had been found following the withdrawal of Russian troops. “There, Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy would have the opportunity to see where the 14-year-old concession policy towards Russia has led,” Mr Zelensky said.
In recent days, Steinmeier has been sharply criticized by Ukraine’s ambassador to Berlin, Andriy Melnik, who has accused him of having very close relations with Moscow.
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