My Lai: For many years, the US Army’s image suffered from its 1968 massacre in a Vietnamese village. At that time 504 people died. Srebrenica: The 1995 massacre by the Serbian army in the Balkan War led to war crimes tribunals and convictions. Around 8000 dead. Bucha: After the withdrawal of Russian troops, 410 dead were found in the suburb of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv. They are more than a clue to the series of war crimes committed by Vladimir Putin. Some victims were shot in the head while their hands were tied, some of the corpses showed signs of torture, Russian troops raped women and tried to burn their corpses, the Ukrainian side said.
President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks of “genocide”: The citizens of Ukraine did not want to submit, that is “the reason why we are being destroyed and exterminated”. A report by the human rights organization Human Rights Watch documented a number of war crimes committed by Russian soldiers between February 27 and March 14. Russia, on the other hand, senses a “media campaign” and wants to convene a meeting of the UN Security Council this Monday, where the “provocation of Ukrainian radicals” is to be discussed. In war, truth is the first casualty and manipulation the first victor.
With Butscha – the “My Lai of Russia” – the view of the Ukraine war changes again. In view of the shocking images, the question of whether Germany loses six percentage points of growth or only three percentage points in an energy embargo against Putin’s cannon state somehow becomes very small and insignificant. It becomes painfully clear that the state, which is proud of its “never again Auschwitz!” morale, transfers 200 million euros a day to a terrorist regime for oil, gas and coal. Germany acts like a hostage of the Kremlin. Resistance to the permanent transfers to Moscow and St. Petersburg is spreading.
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- Federal Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht (SPD) calls for further consequences on the subject of energy supplies. The EU ministers also had to talk about stopping gas deliveries.
- Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) announced tougher sanctions against Moscow and further aid for the Ukrainian military. The pictures of the “unbridled violence” from Bucha are “unbearable” and those responsible must be held accountable.
- Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) wants to “relentlessly investigate these crimes committed by the Russian military”. And he says: “We will decide on further measures in the circle of allies in the next few days.” Germany will continue to supply Ukraine with weapons so that they can defend themselves against Russia. It was “a terrible, senseless and unjustifiable war that causes a lot of suffering and is of no use to anyone. He has to stop.”
EU Council President Charles Michel accuses Russia’s army of causing a massacre in Bucha. The EU will help collect evidence. EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen speaks of “unspeakable horror scenes”. On Twitter, she demands an independent investigation.
In elections in two Eastern European countries, the heads of government didn’t take it badly for flirting with Russia’s dictator Putin. The reckoning of the people that many had hoped for did not take place. In Hungary, for example, the national-conservative Prime Minister Viktor Orban was able to claim victory for his party Fidesz in the parliamentary elections in good time. After counting 96 percent of the votes, she was unassailable with 53 percent. The pro-European opposition alliance “Hungary in Unity” only achieved 35 percent. Orban had said to Ukraine: “This is not our war, we have to stay out of it.”
Aleksandar Vučić, a man who understands Putin, also won in Serbia. In the parliamentary elections, he came in first place with around 60 percent of the votes. In parliament, his populist Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) got 43.6 percent, well ahead of the opposition alliance United for Victory with 12.9 percent and the Socialists, who got 11.6 percent.
Crisis, what crisis? The salaries of American top managers are unaffected by all the geopolitical and virological problems in the world. The database company ISS Corporate Solutions has calculated that the median salary of a CEO of the largest US corporations rose to a record $14.2 million in 2021 – after 13.5 million in 2020.
Among the top earners, thanks to stock options, is Discovery’s David Zaslav the very largest at $247 million, followed by Amazon’s Andy Jassy at $213 million. He earned 6474 times as much as an average employee in his group. The news of the supersalary came just the day workers in New York decided the global e-commerce giant should get a union there. The decision was as unique as the CEO’s income. George Bernard Shaw quipped, “The law is the same for everyone, only the income would have to change.”
The federal government discovers the lubricant par excellence for conveying politics: the “incentives”. So in Berlin, the previous approach, according to which the costs for the climate tax are the sole responsibility of the tenants, is being taken. Now the landlords should also take over part of the so-called CO2 price – depending on how climate-friendly your house is. The price for CO2 emissions in Germany is currently 30 euros per tonne of CO2 that is emitted when heating and motor fuels are burned. The worse a building is insulated and the older the heating system is, the higher the future CO2 burden should be for the landlord and the greater the relief for tenants. So that sets the famous incentives for energy-efficient refurbishment of apartments.
And then there is the speed limit of 130, the indestructible proposal to save energy and shorten the fuel bill. Ricarda Lang, co-leader of the Greens, took him out of the political pantry. He should help to reduce Germany’s dependence on oil. Her decisive sentence: “Because there are otherwise hardly any measures that take effect quickly, we now need a temporary speed limit on motorways – for example for nine months and thus until the end of the year, i.e. the time when we are independent of Russian oil at the latest want to become.” Some environmental organizations and the Veronika Grimm economist also demand this.
But the governing FDP party has been so successful in keeping the issue out of the coalition agreement that it doesn’t want to discuss it at large now. Rather, the designated FDP General Secretary Bijan Djir-Sarai accuses the Greens of using the war in Ukraine for purely symbolic issues. Now is “definitely the wrong time for party-political ideologies.” But: The speed limit is standard in so many countries around the world that this ideological accusation falls back on the author himself.
I wish you a good start into the week.
It greets you cordially
Her
Hans Jürgen Jakobs