Merz is turning Germany against Russia
The new chancellor is just as unrestrained in foreign policy as he is in domestic policy. That's dangerous
Friedrich Merz has an extraordinary talent for breaking a lot of china in a very short space of time. He has already demonstrated this in domestic policy with the asylum dispute and the debt brake. Now it's his turn in foreign policy.
Within a week, Merz has destroyed any remaining trust between Berlin and Moscow. He has given Ukraine military carte blanche and held out the prospect of long-range cruise missiles.
Whether this refers to the German Taurus or other systems is basically irrelevant. What matters is the signal: there are no more borders in the war over Ukraine, Germany is turning militarily against Russia.
To do this at the very moment when peace negotiations for Ukraine are at stake shows a complete lack of tact and intuition. Merz is just as unrestrained in foreign policy as he is in domestic policy.
He is doing diplomacy a disservice. It is true that Merz is backing Ukraine. However, the theory that Ukraine must negotiate from a ‘position of strength’ has been disproved by the war - Kiev is losing.
Not in my name
Merz is not pursuing a diplomatic strategy of his own either. Everything he does - rearming the Bundeswehr, the German brigade in Lithuania, agreeing to the five per cent target in NATO - only speaks for his big-man addiction.
He wants to be number one and ‘lead’ Europe. The problem is that he is positioning Germany against Russia. And not just defensively and passively as before, but actively and dangerously offensively.
He's not doing that in my name...
The original post (in German) is here
Not only European, but also Americans trusted Putin for a long time.
https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/putin_bush001.jpg?quality=75
How can any European not be decisively against Putin? How can anyone trust Putin? European indulgence in 2014 and its desperate seeking of Russian gas caused the weakness Putin exploited. What is Merz supposed to do? Trust Putin?