Merkel: EU dialogue with Putin failed due to Baltic states

Before the attack on Ukraine in February 2022, Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) would have liked a closer dialogue of the EU with the Russian President Vladimir Putin. At the time, in the summer of 2021, together with France President Emmanuel Macron, she sought a new talks of discussion “that we speak directly to Putin as a European Union,” said Merkel in an interview with the Hungarian portal “Partizán”.

At the time, she felt that “the Minsk agreement is no longer taken seriously”. The negotiation of the Minsk Peace Agreement was correct, “only we had no way in Corona to exchange ideas with Putin directly, and that was very bad for further development,” said Merkel. The agreement was concluded in 2015 with the aim of ending the battles already prevailing in Eastern Ukraine.

At that time, direct talks of the EU with Putin were “not supported by some”, “these were above all the Baltic states, but Poland was also against it because they were afraid that we have no common politics towards Russia,” said the ex-chancellor. “My opinion was that we then have to work to have a common policy. In any case, it did not come about, and yes, then I was divorced from office, and then Putin’s aggression started. We will no longer be able to clarify what would have been if,” said Merkel.

Estonia’s Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna rejected Merkel’s statements as outrageous and wrong. The reason for Russia’s comprehensive aggression is Putin’s inability to accept the collapse of the Soviet Union, as well as the former wish of the western countries to negotiate with Putin and ignore his deeds, he said in a statement by the Foreign Office in Tallinn. Neither the war in Georgia in 2008 nor Russia’s annexation of the Crimea in 2014 came across strong reactions.

“In our region, Russia’s true nature was recognized early on, and it was warned of the dangers from Russia. The vast majority of the western world preferred to ignore this,” said Tsahkna. Under Merkel’s leadership, Germany also misjudged the costs of economic cooperation with Russia and, by opening the North Stream pipeline, contributed to staying energy-dependent from Russia.

Merkel’s statements were also critically understood in the other two Baltic states Latvia and Lithuania. The conversation with a journalist from “Partizán” was published online a few days ago. Merkel stayed in the Hungarian capital Budapest on October 1 to promote the Hungarian translation of her memoirs.

A spokeswoman Merkel announced on Monday that the statements of the former Chancellor were “not new”. At an event in June 2022, she already commented on the situation in June 2021. At the time, however, she did not mention the attitude of the Baltic states and Poland to a dialogue with Putin.