Germany came to the wrong conclusions when assessing Putin. The lessons – according to the top of the FDP – should be considered when dealing with other authoritarian states.
After the Russian attack on Ukraine, the designated FDP General Secretary Bijan Djir-Sarai is calling for a tougher course in future dealings with authoritarian rulers.
“We have to learn lessons from this terrible war on how to deal with countries like Russia in the future. I am convinced that the West should have acted decisively and imposed tough sanctions on Russia as early as 2008 during the war in Georgia and no later than 2014 after the annexation of Crimea,” said Djir-Sarai of the German Press Agency. “If that had been the case, there is a high probability that Putin would not have invaded Ukraine.”
Putin wants to prevent democratization “by all means”
Now it is imperative that the guns in Ukraine are silenced, said Djir-Sarai. But even then, Russia would probably make massive attempts to destabilize Ukraine and also to destabilize Europe. A hostile Russian policy towards Europe will continue and possibly spread to other regions on a large scale. He named the Near and Middle East, Asia or Africa.
“I don’t think Putin is afraid of Europe or Ukraine. Putin’s greatest fear was and is that the countries on his own doorstep will become democratic, economically successful and European,” said Djir-Sarai. “Because if that succeeds in Ukraine, people in Russia will also stand up and say: We want this democratization too. And of course Putin wants to prevent that by all means.”
The same applies to the Iranian leadership. The regime in Tehran considers the West weak and indecisive. “Regimes like the Islamic Republic of Iran basically live from the fact that certain things are completely ignored by the European Union. Two and a half years ago, during the unrest in Iran, countless people were murdered, arrested and tortured within a few days. Hardly anyone in the EU said a word about it,” he said. “I find that deeply shameful.” In Iran, women are massively oppressed. Opposition members have to fear for their lives every day. There is an alarmingly high number of political prisoners.
“Have to save the nuclear deal”
“Everything that keeps coming to our minds in this context is: we have to save the nuclear agreement,” said Djir-Sarai. “The Israelis reject the agreement and consider it wrong. The Arab states reject the agreement and consider it wrong. It must give us food for thought why the people living in the region are opposed to this agreement when we in Europe think the agreement is so desirable. It wouldn’t be wrong to think seriously about this fact for at least a second.”
Djir-Sarai recalled that the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine was coming at a time when the Americans had actually already made strategic decisions and identified future dealings with China as the greatest challenge. “The different worldviews of the USA and China are examples of the rift that basically divides our world into democracies and authoritarian states,” said Djir-Sarai. “The greatest political and social debate of this century will be: democracy versus autocracy. Freedom versus dictatorship.”
Source: Stern
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