A cataclysmic article on Germany's policy, Germany's policy towards Russia over the years, published by Politico, on the occasion of the invasion of Ukraine. The article is titled "Putin's Useful German Idiots" and it points out that despite Moscow's behavior in recent years with the occupation of Crimea and the invasion of Georgia, naivety was something that "struck" all of Germany's parties.
As Politico reports, Russia's invasion of Ukraine is not just a repudiation of Merkel's chancellery, but of an entire generation of German politicians. Politico notes in its analysis that "it should surprise no one that Berlin has spent the past 16 years on the wrong side of history when it comes to its strategy toward Russia."
Less predictable was the speed with which Germany abandoned its stance towards Moscow in recent weeks by putting the brakes on the controversial Nord Stream 2 pipeline project, by sending arms to Ukraine, and by adopting sanctions against Russia. In other words, Germany agreed almost overnight to do what the US and its other allies have been asking it to do for years. Berlin has also created a slogan, ready to become a hashtag: "Zeitenwende", meaning "the dawn of a new era."
Germany did not "misjudge Putin", as former Chancellor Angela Merkel's foreign policy adviser Christoph Hoisgen argued last week. He has now taken over as chairman of the Munich Security Conference.
Germany's insistence, Politico writes, on maintaining contacts with the Russian leader in the face of his continued aggression - a list of misdeeds ranging from invading Georgia to killing enemies abroad to war crimes in Syria - was nothing short of a catastrophic blunder, that would have given Merkel a place in the pantheon of political naivety alongside Neville Chamberlain.
Slowly but surely, Germany through Merkel was gently beginning to reach out to Russia and with her decision in 2015 to give the green light to the Nord Stream 2 pipeline despite Russia's annexation of Crimea and its role with pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine, she not only opened the door for Putin to go further, but actually encouraged him to do so.
However, Russia's invasion of Ukraine is not just a repudiation of Merkel's chancellorship, but of a whole generation of German politicians from across the spectrum blinded by nostalgia for "Ostpolitik" and (Change through Trade) "Wandel durch Handel", the 1970s depression policies advocated by then-Chancellor Willy Brandt. The German myth led to the end of the Cold War.
Germany's collective responsibility is because turning the page is easier said than done. There is no one figure like Churchill in German politics who has been warning for years about the dangers of trusting Putin.
While Merkel seems to bear most of the blame for falling into the Russian leader's trap, the truth is that Germany's entire political class is guilty. As Merkel's finance minister and vice chancellor, current Chancellor Olaf Scholz, whose Social Democrats were the driving force behind the Nord Stream pipelines, supported the idea that the best way to deal with Putin was through endless "dialogue."
Jens Plettner, Solz's current national security adviser, was one of the main architects of this policy during his years as a senior diplomat in Germany's foreign ministry.
There he served as chief of staff to then-Social Democrat foreign minister Frank Walter Steinmeier (and current president) and more recently as the ministry's political director. Even as Putin massed tens of thousands of troops on the Ukrainian border in December, Plettner advised Scholz to remain loyal to the Nord Stream 2 project.
Though less responsible than Merkel's Christian Democrats and the Social Democrats for the policies that led to Putin's invasion of Ukraine, the smaller parties in Germany's ruling coalition, the liberal Free Democrats and Greens, also played their part.
The Greens opposed the Nord Stream 2 pipeline both for ecological reasons and to express solidarity with Ukraine. However, although they opposed the delivery of arms to Kiev, it was only when hostilities began that they changed their stance.
The Free Democrats, for their part, were divided on what to do about the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, with many in the party, including the party's deputy leader Wolfgang Kubiki, in favour of trading with Russia.
Even Germany's one-time strongman, Wolfgang Schaeuble, admitted that Berlin's stance towards Moscow was not right. "I was wrong, we were all wrong," former Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble admitted to the Sunday edition of the conservative newspaper Die Welt,
What he did not say, however, is that allies have been warning the German leadership for years about its attitude toward Putin, and now that it is confronted with the new facts, it is unaware of how to react.
After Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's harsh accusation in his recent speech in the Bundestag, where he slammed Germany for helping Putin finance his war by doing business with Russia, German MEPs gave him a standing ovation, but shortly afterwards - as if nothing had happened - they went back to their daily lives and social duties and even wished 'happy birthday' to two of their colleagues who were celebrating their birthdays.
The "useful idiots"
During the Cold War, "useful idiots" were the naive moderates in the West who gave credence to the arguments of the ideological opponents behind the Iron Curtain. And now, says Politico, the term fits German politicians, who acted as Putin's "useful idiots" with Berlin's veto of Ukraine's NATO membership 14 years ago, its gas deals with Russia, and its refusal to send arms to Ukraine.
All the while, the so-called "Russlandversteher" - those who know Russian politics - dismissed criticism of their course, insisting they knew better, while mocking Washington to its face. No one is laughing anymore," the article comments. It concludes. Ukraine, which was plundered by Germany during World War II, by the end of which it had lost more than 15 percent of its population, will certainly not forgive and will not forget," Politico reports, concluding that Germany is well aware that, even if it is possible to hide from history for a while, there is no definitive escape.
Source: protothema.gr
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