Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel on the 7th defended her policy of de-escalating tensions with Russia during her tenure in office. Photo: Dazhi Image/Associated Press (file photo)
President Volodymyr Zelensky has criticized Russia’s atrocities in the town of Bucha as the result of German and French concessions to Russia 14 years ago. Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel defended her policy of de-escalating tensions with Russia during her tenure on the 7th, saying she had “nothing to apologize for” even as the war in Ukraine overshadowed her performance.
In her first major interview in six months, Merkel insisted that she was not naive about dealing with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the past, according to Agence France-Presse. “Diplomacy doesn’t work, doesn’t mean it’s wrong,” Merkel, 67, stressed in an exclusive interview with Phoenix news channel on a Berlin theatre stage.
Merkel mentioned that Russia supported economic sanctions against Russia after it annexed the Crimea peninsula in 2014, and that Germany also worked with France to keep the Minsk peace agreement that resolved the Ukraine crisis in effect. “I don’t blame myself for not being diligent enough; I don’t see where I have to say ‘this is wrong,’ so I have nothing to apologize for,” she said.
Merkel, who has been in politics for many years, met Putin several times during her four terms as prime minister and pushed for a trade-oriented, pragmatic approach to Moscow’s authorities that made Germany heavily reliant on Russian energy imports, but she said Russia on February 24 The invasion of Ukraine was a “turning point”. Putin launched a “brutal” and illegal war of aggression “without justification” and made a “major mistake”.
Critics bluntly say her policy of de-escalation toward Russia has left Germany and Europe vulnerable, slamming her for blocking Ukraine from joining NATO in 2008, arguing that Ukraine was not ready at the time, adding that Ding was already dissatisfied with NATO’s seemingly eastward expansion, and she did so to avoid “further pressing” Putin.
Merkel also insisted that the 2014-2015 Minsk peace deal, now scrap paper, was seen at the time as the most promising means of ending fighting between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian soldiers in eastern Ukraine. The peace accords in Skåne, which never fully succeeded in ending the fighting in eastern Ukraine, “brought some peace” to the peace process, allowed Ukraine an additional seven years to develop and strengthen its military, thus showing much concern in resisting the invasion of Russian troops. Praise for resilience.
Merkel praised: “The courage and enthusiasm with which they[Ukrainian soldiers]fought for their country is impressive”. She paid “highest respect” to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, but insisted that it was inevitable Deal with Putin because Russia, like China, is too big to ignore, and Europe is a neighbor to ignore each other. “Despite our differences, we have to find a way to coexist,” she noted.
Merkel, who grew up in former communist East Germany and speaks fluent Russian, has been criticized by the United States and other countries for her support for the planned Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline. Merkel’s successor, current German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, has shelved the plan. The current German president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who served as German foreign minister under Merkel, has publicly admitted that he was wrong about his Russia policy.