{"id":42580,"date":"2021-06-29T14:43:48","date_gmt":"2021-06-29T12:43:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/libmod.de\/?p=42580"},"modified":"2021-06-29T17:54:34","modified_gmt":"2021-06-29T15:54:34","slug":"putins-poisoned-chalice-fuecks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/libmod.de\/en\/putins-poisoned-chalice-fuecks\/","title":{"rendered":"Putin\u2019s Poisoned Chalice*"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text][\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row css=\u201d.vc_custom_1508251598805{margin-top: 30px !important;}\u201d][vc_column width=\u201c2\/3\u201d css=\u201d.vc_custom_1508252250311{padding-right: 20px !important;}\u201d][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

An answer to Wladimir Putin\u2019s fine tuned op-ed in the German weekly Die Zeit by Ralf F\u00fccks, Center for Liberal Modernity.<\/h2>\n

In a recent op-ed piece<\/a>, Vladimir Putin called for dialogue between Russia and Europe. Ironic, as he was the one who destroyed the basis for such talks in the first place.<\/p>\n

Vladimir Putin\u2019s excursus marking the 80th anniversary of the German invasion of the Soviet Union is a small masterwork. The piece plays skilfully on the complex mixture of emotions that Germans harbour towards Russia. Putin knows only too well that the guilt and shame evoked by the war of annihi\u00adlation waged by the Wehrmacht and the SS are directed almost entirely towards Russia, though that the violent excesses of the eastern campaign were no less brutal in the terri\u00adtories of Poland, Ukraine and present-day Belarus. A great many nations suffered under the war and occupation. A great many nations paid in currency of immea\u00adsurable sacrifice to bring Hitler\u2019s Germany to its knees. Yet the empathy that Germans feel towards the victims and their liber\u00adators is far from evenly distributed \u2013 an asymmetry that the Kremlin does its best to encourage.<\/p>\n

The glorious victory in the \u201cGreat Patriotic War\u201d is a key source of legit\u00adimacy for the Putin regime. Nothing can be allowed to cast a shadow on this image. The Hitler-Stalin Pact, the carving up of Poland by mutual agreement, the imperi\u00adal\u00adistic dividing up of Eastern Europe before the 22nd of June 1941: Putin piece alludes to none of these. Nor does he see any reason to mention that liber\u00adation from Nazi rule led directly to the estab\u00adlishment of another form of tyranny in the eastern half of Europe. The twofold experience of violence undergone by the peoples of East Central Europe under Hitler and Stalin has no place in Putin\u2019s picture of Great-Russian history.<\/p>\n

The anti-Western under\u00adcurrent in Germany, the chronic ambiva\u00adlence towards American and deep-seated reser\u00adva\u00adtions about NATO combine to form a second motif in Putin\u2019s compo\u00adsition. If we believe him, the eastwards expansion of NATO was the original sin that destroyed New Europe. This is reality turned upside down. NATO was never a threat to Russia. It is not anti-Russian in either its political or its military orien\u00adtation. Nor did the initiative for NATO\u2019s enlargement originate in Washington. On the contrary, it began in the new democ\u00adracies in East Central Europe, which were seeking insurance themselves against the risk of a re-emergence of imperial ambitions in the Kremlin. Russia\u2019s military inter\u00adven\u00adtions in Georgia and the Ukraine have confirmed that their fears were justified.<\/p>\n

Finely tuned for a German audience.<\/h2>\n

The melody of Putin\u2019s piece is finely tuned for German ears. His plea for a \u201cEurope from Lisbon to Vladi\u00advostok\u201d is aimed at detaching us from the USA, at long last, and replacing our ties with the West with an alliance with Moscow. There has long been fertile soil for this in Germany \u2013 from the far left to the far right. There are elements in the German economy that are still attracted to the idea of a strategic alliance within which Russia provides the raw materials and Germany the advanced technologies. Nord Stream 2 belongs very much in this tradition. In the political arena as well, there are those both in conser\u00adv\u00adative circles and on the left who are quite taken with idea of a Berlin-Moscow axis acting as a geopo\u00adlitical counter\u00adweight to America and China.<\/p>\n

Putin culti\u00advates these leanings quite delib\u00ader\u00adately. He is betting that a Europe without the transat\u00adlantic bonds of mutual alliance will come under the political and military dominance of Russia. In the Kremlin\u2019s eyes, Germany is the \u201cswing state\u201d: with a victory here, he can take NATO down. No effort is too great for a reward like that. And the profits from natural gas and oil exports make for deep pockets.<\/p>\n

Russia destroys the basis for dialogue<\/h2>\n

Dialogue as a panacea for forgiving and peaceful cooper\u00adation forms a third motif that runs through Putin\u2019s piece. The threads of continuing conver\u00adsation must not be allowed to break down \u2013 this is a ubiquitous refrain in the Russia debate. Yet conver\u00adsation is not in short supply. Chancellor Angela Merkel speaks with Putin on the phone regularly, the European foreign ministers take turns meeting with their Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov. Russia is a member of the Council of Europe and of the OSCE; there are joint economic forums, city partner\u00adships and the Petersburg Dialogue. Yet none of this has prevented the Kremlin from steering a course towards conflict. The list of its trans\u00adgres\u00adsions is quite long \u2013 from the undeclared war against Ukraine to the cyber-attacks on the German Bundestag to the assas\u00adsi\u00adnation attempts on Putin opponents in Europe.<\/p>\n

No amount of willingness to engage in dialogue can change the fact that we are in the midst of a new conflict of systems, with liberal democ\u00adracies on the one side and their author\u00adi\u00adtarian counter\u00adparts on the other. At the very least, we should recognise just who it is we are dealing with in Moscow. Otherwise, the European \u201cgood-will\u201d diplomats will face treatment like that meted out to Josep Borrell, the EU\u2019s chief of foreign relations, when he was publicly humil\u00adiated by Lavrov.<\/p>\n

The Russian leadership has been system\u00adat\u00adi\u00adcally destroying the bases for a serious dialogue. On the domestic front, they have steadily ratcheted up the pressure on civil society. Freedom of expression has been restricted through a whole series of repressive laws. More than 160 NGOs have been branded \u201cforeign agents\u201d. Any political opposition is prevented before it can get started. Television, the justice system and the Duma were forced into line long ago; critical thinkers are driven out of the country.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the list of \u201cundesirable foreign organ\u00adi\u00adsa\u00adtions\u201d barred from any kind of activity in Russia grows ever longer. It includes founda\u00adtions for democracy, like the European Endowment for Democracy and the Open Society Founda\u00adtions, research insti\u00adtutes and European platforms for democ\u00adratic elections. Very recently, the DRA (German-Russian Exchange) and the Center for Liberal Modernity were added to the list of the banned, putting an end to years of cooper\u00adation with Russian friends and partners. In the future, anyone who cooperates with us risks a prison sentence. Clamping down inside the country and closing the doors to outside influence<\/strong> go hand in hand.<\/p>\n

That diplo\u00admatic channels to Moscow must be kept open is self-evident. We should be doing every\u00adthing in our power to support democ\u00adratic forces in Russia at the same time, though.<\/p>\n

Putin is not Russia<\/h2>\n

Vladimir Putin is not Russia. There is a growing democ\u00adratic awareness in the regions and in the younger gener\u00ada\u00adtions. They are our strategic partners. We must not allow Moscow to dictate the terms for dialogue. Russian state media and web brigades are influ\u00adencing public opinion in the West on a grand scale; the Kremlin is cooper\u00adating with populist parties on both sides of the political spectrum all across Europe. This, while cooper\u00adation with Russian partners is prohibited as \u201cinter\u00adference with internal affairs\u201d. This is unacceptable.<\/p>\n

So, what should our response to Putin be? Russia is welcome in the common European house. Yet economic and political partnership have to be based on common values and rules. There is no getting around that. An offer of European cooper\u00adation that omits any mention of democracy, human rights, or the equal security and sover\u00adeignty of all states is a poisoned chalice.<\/p>\n

*Trans\u00adlation from the German of \u201cPutins vergiftetes Angebot\u201d, an opinion piece published in ZEIT ONLINE<\/em><\/a> on 24 June 2021.<\/p>\n

\n

Ralf F\u00fccks is a founder and Man\u00adag\u00ading Partner at the Center for Liberal Modernity
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

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