welcome back after an eventful week. I am writing these lines at the departure gate of London City Airport. Shortly before the start of the Munich Security Conference we met Putin’s adversary Mikhail Khodorkovsky for an interviewonce the richest oligarch in Russia, whom Putin first locked away for years after a show trial, then pardoned and finally allowed to leave the country.
My colleague Mathias Brüggmann and I met the ex-billionaire at his London mansion in upscale Mayfair. On the walls are pictures of Russian artists he supports, in the cupboard a blue-and-white tea service from the Tsarist St. Petersburg porcelain factory, and a plush corner sofa in the corner—all surprisingly normal for a man who still has a $500,000 bounty on his head . Shortly before eleven o’clock he comes through the door in jeans and a parka, takes his white Airpods out of his ears and sits down.
In a wild mixture of English and Russian We then had an intensive conversation about Vladimir Putin’s future, possible scenarios for an end to the war in Ukraine, fighter jet deliveries and the state of his old homeland Russia. Khodorkovsky also acknowledges his own mistakes and makes some interesting suggestions as to how Russia could be further weakened. And he says very clearly: “There can be no peace with Putin.”
Khodorkovsky speaks like someone who is at peace. He pauses to think, makes eye contact and has to smile himself as he ponders what he would call out to Olaf Scholz if he were a young Ukrainian.
This is a man who has left the fear of death behind. “If he wants me to die, I’m dead,” Khodorkovsky said of the Putin threat. “Ten years in prison and 15 years earlier as an entrepreneur – I could have been killed any day. If I had always thought about it, that alone would have killed me.”
What else kept us busy this week:
1: This weekend the world is looking to Munich. For the 59th time, 40 heads of state and government, around 100 ministers and hundreds of other experts and politicians from 96 countries will come together to discuss the security situation in the world. Four editors will report live for you throughout the weekend for the Handelsblatt. A big question will be how the support for Ukraine will continue. My colleague Larissa Holzki wants to talk to Volodymyr Pikuzo about this in Munich, for example, the 37-year-old chief buyer of the Ukrainian military. My colleague Dana Heide’s focus is on China. The regime, which is becoming increasingly aggressive in foreign policy, is the elephant in the room in Munich, she says. Particularly interesting therefore: the appearance of China’s top foreign politician Wang Yi on Saturday.
2: But right at the beginning there should be a lot of trouble in Munich – namely between Germany and France. The US armaments group Lockheed Martin wants to involve the German company Rheinmetall in the production of its F-35 fighter jet. The Europeans actually wanted to develop their own alternative to the jet. The French were not even informed about the new cooperation – and now feel abandoned. However, Olaf Scholz doesn’t seem to care.
The German armaments group Rheinmetall is to be involved in the production of the fighter jet.
(Photo: imago images/ZUMA Wire)
3: But that’s not the Chancellor’s only problem. His ministers meanwhile publicly tussle in mocking letters. Economics Minister Habeck attacked Finance Minister Lindner because of the debt brake. Lindner, in turn, claims that Habeck wants to break the Basic Law with his spending requests. A bizarre process that shows above all that the golden age of politics is over, when money was there for all political wishes. The question remains: if there is such a tone in public letters, what about private WhatsApp messages?
4: Incidentally, the next coalition crash is already foreseeable: Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner is working on tax relief for companies. It’s about investment premiums, better research funding and more generous loss offsetting. Good points that would help the economy immediately given the huge strain. But Lindner’s coalition partners prefer to dream of tax increases. So it shouldn’t be long before the ministers write new letters.
5: There is also stress at SAP, and that also has to do with my podcast and the subsequent reporting. A few weeks ago, SAP announced a restructuring program and job cuts. The problem with this: A few days earlier, SAP boss Christian Klein had said in the podcast when I asked about downsizing: “What I can rule out: We won’t get any restructuring because our business is going badly, on the contrary, business is going well. “
But it is his duty to optimize the portfolio. Employees now feel misinformed by Klein. On Friday, 24 employee representatives of the group positioned themselves against the austerity program in an internal e-mail.
6: That the expansion of renewables is not progressing fast enough, you know from our reports. Now the federal government has noticed it too. On behalf of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, experts have therefore developed a roadmap for accelerating the energy transition, reports our energy team exclusively. It’s about subsidies for operating costs, government purchase guarantees and a comeback of the solar industry. However, behind all this there is also the question: How much government is really necessary for the green conversion of the energy system?
The expansion of renewables is to be massively accelerated in Germany.
(Photo: Paul Langrock/Zenit/laif)
7: Do you still remember the horror forecasts a few months ago? New figures now show: In 2022, the Dax companies earned almost as well as in the record year before – things went similarly well for smaller companies. And 2023 is also looking far better than many had feared. Here you can read how the wrong forecasts came about.
8: But the numbers also show something else: Sentiment is currently worse than the data. In my view, the reason for this is a fundamental misunderstanding between politics and business, I argue in this week’s editorial.
9: And if you still have some time, I recommend a report from our network of correspondents: Annett Meiritz from Washington portrays the former UN ambassador Nikki Haley, who started the US presidential election campaign a few days ago. Meiritz judges the Trump challenger “is the most unusual applicant ever.” And I promise you, once you have read the text, you will understand what my colleague means.
Have a nice weekend.
sincerely
Her
Sebastian Mathes
Editor-in-Chief of the Handelsblatt
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