Was the German Russia policy of the past few years wrong? Ex-Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer finds self-critical words after the start of the Ukraine war.
What had been hinted at for a long time and yet many did not want to believe it to be possible has happened: Russia has attacked the Ukraine, and there is war in Europe again. The West reacted with shock, with heads of state and government condemning the actions of Russian President Vladimir Putin in the strongest possible terms. At the same time, the question arises as to what the West, and especially Europe, can do to counter Russian aggression.
Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, former CDU chairwoman and Federal Defense Minister from 2019 to 2021, is harsh on German Russia policy. “I’m so angry with us because we failed historically,” the 59-year-old wrote on Twitter. “After Georgia, Crimea and Donbass, nothing has been prepared that would have really deterred Putin.”
War in Ukraine is not the first Russian aggression
In the summer of 2008, in the dispute over the small republics of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, which had declared independence from Georgia, Russia carried out airstrikes on the Georgian capital, Tbilisi. In 2014, Putin illegally annexed the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea. Finally, this week the Russian President recognized the self-proclaimed People’s Republics of Luhansk and Donetsk in the Donbass as independent states.
Meanwhile, Western politicians such as French President Emmanuel Macron and Chancellor Olaf Scholz had tried to prevent Putin from further escalating the situation. Western diplomacy is now proving to have failed miserably, which also underscores the loss of importance of Europe and Germany in the world.
Kramp-Karrenbauer with self-critical words
Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer also has to admit that: “We have forgotten the lesson of Schmidt and Kohl that negotiations always have priority, but you have to be so strong militarily that non-negotiation is not an option for the other side.” This is apparently not the case with NATO and the Bundeswehr – at least not to an extent that would impress Vladimir Putin. Kramp-Karrenbauer, who was Minister of Defense for the German army for two and a half years, finds unusually self-critical words.
The Inspector of the German Army, Lieutenant General Alfons Mais, made a similar statement. “The Bundeswehr, the army that I am allowed to lead, is more or less blank,” he wrote on LinkedIn. “The policy options we can offer in support of the alliance are extremely limited.”
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Source: Stern
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