Germany and other European nations are facing major problems as a result of the Ukraine crisis. Inflation, gas shortages, disunited population. Meanwhile, President Putin manages to equalize the West’s sanctions with astonishing speed.
The big misunderstanding of the Western sanctions regime lies in the children’s belief: I’ll take the shovel away from the other person – and then he has nothing left to play with. ugh!
The truth is: the other shakes and immediately seeks new friends and partners out of our reach. He soon has a new shovel, but from a different source. Our sanctions stressed him out, but didn’t finish him off. His life goes on, only in the sandbox next door.
Vladimir Putin’s flexibility in rerouting supply chains and forging new alliances is as impressive as it is frightening. Yesterday he left the former Soviet sector for the first time since the beginning of the Ukraine war – a demonstration of his ability to connect.
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Putin’s ability to find new partners seems superior to our ability to form alliances. The war hurt us. He thrives as a war president. Saying that is not nice, but true.
Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock plays a leading role in Germany’s Ukraine policy, which has shifted from the periphery to the center. Continue to deliver heavy weapons or gradually start peace talks? And if so, with whom and what is the goal?
Yesterday evening, a Foreign Minister in a good mood (within the scope of political possibilities), but focused, was a guest on Pioneer One. In an interview with Vice Editor-in-Chief Gordon Repinski, she explained her basic attitude in these armed conflicts and presented her ideas for solving the energy crisis that the country is likely to face.
An end to the war in Ukraine is currently not in sight, she said. Especially not through diplomatic channels: “Russia does not want to find a solution at the moment. And whether the situation will change at some point, no one in this world can say, except for the Russian President himself.”
She clearly rejected the demands to keep the last three nuclear power plants connected to the grid with a view to the energy supply in the coming winter: “We don’t have a power problem, we have a gas problem.”
For the time being, however, there is no getting around coal-fired power plants and LNG terminals: “I never thought that we would need coal-fired power plants again. The world is so complex right now.”
When asked about her current situation as Germany’s top diplomat, she said: “Foreign policy also means having to endure the fact that at certain moments you can’t do anything without falling into actionism. In this terrible situation there is also an opportunity to reflect on what security actually means to us.”
Therefore, a national security strategy is now being developed. The central question is: “How do we manage to remain networked in a globalized world without making ourselves so vulnerable?”
The Russian President is fighting Western democracies with unfair, because unscrupulous, means: “If I have my population completely in my hands and, if in doubt, lock them up in prison or have them disappear, then the normal ratio no longer works as it used to. “
To the loud applause of more than 100 Pioneers, she committed herself to democracy and the rule of law – and to the value of political stability.
Conclusion: the longer you listen to her, the more you get the feeling that Germany is not just somehow represented abroad, but is represented in style. The fact that she did not want to give a precise answer to the question of whether she could run for chancellor again was not disturbing, but made sense.
Gabor Steingart is one of the best-known journalists in the country. He publishes the newsletter The Pioneer Briefing. The podcast of the same name is Germany’s leading daily podcast for politics and business. Since May 2020, Steingart has been working with his editorial staff on the ship “The Pioneer One”. Before founding Media Pioneer, Steingart was, among other things, CEO of the Handelsblatt Media Group. You can subscribe to his free newsletter here.
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