Kay-Achim Schönbach was met with outrage with statements about Russia’s President Vladimir Putin.
(Photo: dpa)
The statements by the top German naval commander, who has since resigned, are probably the best evidence that the Kremlin’s claims that Russia is being threatened are pure fantasies. On the contrary: even in the Bundeswehr, there is a mindset that downplays the threat posed by Russia and dreams of alliances with Moscow.
This feeds the already growing doubts of the allies in the EU and NATO about Germany’s loyalty to the alliance and increases concerns about Germany going its own way.
This is devastating in a situation in which the West has to stand together if it wants to prevent a unilateral Moscow revision of the post-1991 security architecture. And this stability and prosperity in Eastern Europe, which was developed through EU and NATO enlargement, is in acute danger from the Kremlin’s demands for Moscow’s zones of influence.
The consequences that this could have for our security, but also very much for our economy, would be fatal: the exchange of goods with our Eastern European EU partners alone is greater than that with China. And German industry needs transatlantic trade to survive and must not jeopardize it with doubts overseas.
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Above all, however, the Russian attempt to create spheres of influence must be fended off. The retired naval commander pretended to want to counter China’s striving for similar spheres of influence in Asia and globally. But if Moscow got through with its request, this would be a strong incentive for Beijing to do the same as Russia.
Thinking and acting must change in the Kremlin
The lesson from the worst crime against humanity – Hitler’s devastation – must be: never again an attack on Russia, close partnership in Europe, but above all security for the states between Germany and Russia. The thinking that great powers have great rights and small ones have to submit must be put a stop to.
One thing has changed decisively today, even if many places keep swearing that the Soviet Union was a reliable (energy) partner of Germany even during the Cold War: Putin’s Russia is not the continuation of the USSR. She wanted to keep her status, but Putin wants history to be revised.
Today, Russia is no longer a reliable partner. It is rival and at worst opponent. For this to change, thinking and acting in the Kremlin must change.
More: German naval chief Schönbach resigns after comments on Crimean annexation