Germany’s former Chancellor Angela Merkel to speak out

Angela Merkel was widely seen as a stabilizing figure in Europe during her tenure but the war in Ukraine has exposed the flaws in her business-oriented Russia policy. Critics have labeled her policy of detente toward Moscow which has left Germany and Europe vulnerable.

She will be appearing in her first major German television interview since leaving office later on Tuesday. DW will update this story with a comprehensive update of the interview once it airs.

In April, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy hit out at Angela Merkel and former French President Nicolas Sarkozy suggesting their move in 2008 to block Ukraine’s admission to NATO had been a clear “miscalculation” that emboldened Russia.

The Ukrainian president made his remarks after the alleged human rights violations at the hands of Russian forces came to light in Bucha.

Merkel quickly released a statement saying that she “stands by her decisions in relation to the 2008 NATO summit in Bucharest.”

“In view of the atrocities uncovered in Bucha and other places in Ukraine, all efforts by the government and the international community to stand by Ukraine’s side and to bring an end to Russia’s barbarism and war against Ukraine have the former chancellor’s full support,” the statement continued.

Merkel’s government has also been criticized for steering Germany into its considerable dependency on Russian oil and gas. Yearslong construction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline to carry Russian fuel directly to Germany was officially completed and ready to begin operation before it was put on indefinite hold by Chancellor Olaf Scholz just days before Russian forces launched their assault in February.

But Germany’s “appeasement of Russia” goes back decades of the foreign policy of the Federal Republic. The clearest shift in stance came under SPD Chancellor Willy Brandt, whose 1969 “Ostpolitik” was reviled by conservatives. Successive West German and reunified German governments, including those of Merkel, then continued to pursue a policy of constructive cooperation.

While Merkel’s predecessor Gerhard Schröder has long been a close personal friend of Vladimir Putin, her own relationship with the Russian president was marked by ups and downs.

Merkel speaks fluent Russian, like many older adults who grew up in East Germany, a socialist country with close links to the Soviet Union. Putin, for his part, was based in East Germany as a KGB agent from 1985 to 1989 and speaks excellent German.

He repeatedly described his conversations with the German chancellor as “very open.”

• Vladimir Putin and Angela Merkel: Through good times and bad

  Up-and-coming leaders

  In 2002, Angela Merkel was the head of what was then Germany’s main opposition party, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). Putin was the fresh-faced president of a new and modern Russia. After meeting Putin in the Kremlin, Merkel reportedly joked to her aides that she had passed the “KGB test” of holding his gaze — an allusion to Putin’s earlier career in the Soviet security agency.

• Vladimir Putin and Angela Merkel: Through good times and bad

  New chancellor in town

  Putin had built a friendship with Angela Merkel’s predecessor, Gerhard Schröder, and the two men remain close to this day. By late 2005, however, it was clear that Merkel was set to dethrone the Social Democrat Schröder. Talking to Merkel in Russia’s Berlin embassy, Putin pledged to expand the ties between the two countries. Merkel described the dialogue as “very open.”

• Vladimir Putin and Angela Merkel: Through good times and bad

  A friendly ear for Putin

  About a year later, Putin shared his impressions of the woman who had since become Germany’s chancellor: “We don’t know each other on a very personal level, but I’m impressed by her ability to listen,” he told Germany’s public broadcaster MDR from Dresden, adding that listening was a rare skill among female politicians.

• Vladimir Putin and Angela Merkel: Through good times and bad

  A gap in Merkel’s armor

  The German chancellor has a well-known fear of dogs. Still, Putin let his black lab Konni wonder around the Sochi venue when he welcomed Merkel there in January 2007. Was he trying to intimidate her? Merkel seems to think so: “I believe the Russian president knew very well that I wasn’t thrilled by the idea of meeting his dog, but he still brought it with him,” the chancellor said in 2015.

• Vladimir Putin and Angela Merkel: Through good times and bad

  Too thin-skinned on media

  By 2012, Vladimir Putin had taken on a harsher course towards the press and political dissenters. When asked about media freedom while in Saint Petersburg, Merkel responded with a barely hidden jab at her fellow leader: “If I were to get sulky every time I opened a newspaper, I wouldn’t last three days as chancellor,” she said.

• Vladimir Putin and Angela Merkel: Through good times and bad

  Talks continue into the ice age

  Relations between Moscow and the West took a steep plunge after the annexation of Crimea in 2014. However, Putin told German media that he still maintained a “business-like relationship” with the German chancellor. “I trust her. She is a very open person. She, like anyone else, is subject to certain limitations, but she is honestly attempting to solve the crises,” he told Bild, a German daily.

• Vladimir Putin and Angela Merkel: Through good times and bad

  No insult intended but …

  “I don’t mean to insult anybody, but Ms. Merkel’s statement is an outburst of a long-accumulated anger over limited sovereignty,” Putin told the press in 2017, commenting on an election campaign address that the German leader had given in Munich. Merkel’s so-called “beer tent” speech saw her urge Europeans to rely on themselves amidst disputes with US President Donald Trump.

• Vladimir Putin and Angela Merkel: Through good times and bad

  Rolling with it

  Just a month after Putin’s remarks on sovereignty, the two leaders were photographed talking at a G-20 summit in Hamburg. While the topic remains a mystery, both Merkel and Putin used strong gestures. At one point, as Putin wags his finger Merkel looks away from him and rolls her eyes. The moment quickly went viral.

• Vladimir Putin and Angela Merkel: Through good times and bad

  ‘We have to talk to each other’

  When Merkel arrived in Sochi in 2018, Putin welcomed her with a bouquet of flowers. An offer of peace? An act of gallantry? Sexism? The rationale didn’t really matter in the big picture. Appearing alongside Putin, Merkel said dialogue needed to go on. “Even if there are grave differences of opinion on some issues, we have to talk to each other, because otherwise you just sink into silence.”

• Vladimir Putin and Angela Merkel: Through good times and bad

  Handshake in 2020

  Angela Merkel met with the Russian President in the Kremlin in January 2020. Later, relations again deteriorated over the Russian involvement in Ukraine, but also over its treatment of dissidents. Most notably of dissident Alexei Navalny who was arrested upon his return to Russia from medical treatment in Germany.

  Author: Jan D. Walter, Darko Janjevic

Relations between Moscow and the West took a steep plunge after the annexation of Crimea in 2014. However, Putin told German media that he still maintained a “businesslike relationship” with the German chancellor. “I trust her. She is a very open person. She, like anyone else, is subject to certain limitations, but she is honestly attempting to solve the crises,” he told the German tabloid Bild at the time.

Since the war began, there has been speculation in German media about whether Merkel might be able to mediate in the current crisis. So far, she has not given any indication of returning to the field of diplomacy.

Edited by: Kyra Levine

While you’re here: Every Tuesday, DW editors round up what is happening in German politics and society. You can sign up here for the weekly email newsletter Berlin Briefing.

Article source: https://www.dw.com/en/germany-s-former-chancellor-angela-merkel-to-speak-out/a-62052345?maca=en-rss-en-ger-1023-xml-atom