The Chancellor and the Fear of Putin – Handelsblatt Morning Briefing

Vladimir Putin’s TNT terror is a two-hour flight from Munich or Berlin. Two hours? In reality, the Kremlin kleptocrate’s war on freedom is much closer – it’s in our heads.

What is happening there in the Ukraine brings back long-lost memories for all over 80-year-olds. They look at women and children in the underground tunnels of Kyiv on TV – and see themselves and their families in the air raid shelter in 1945. They look at the refugees at the border posts – and feel the dirt of the treks from Breslau or East Prussia to a new home , where no one wanted her.

Our seniors experience the fear of life again in front of the screen. You know what Emmanuel Macron is talking about when he says: “The worst is yet to come.” Sometimes we have to switch off to switch on. Do we need to talk about it instead of just watching TV.

Olaf Scholz openly addressed the fears of the elderly, as well as the children’s questions about war, in yesterday’s ZDF one-on-one interview with Maybrit Illner. It is therefore now important to be resolute and level-headed and to take a clear course.

The chancellor responded to accusations of appeasement and softness that nobody could have prevented the war because nobody was in Putin’s head: “This Thursday changed the situation”, this Thursday of the invasion. Scholz said twice that the innocently attacked Ukraine “should not be left alone”, but also: “We mustn’t fool ourselves.”

For the time being, he called for a ceasefire – after the recently agreed humanitarian corridors for the evacuation of the injured. In his almost provocative objectivity, the SPD politician explained to everyone who didn’t understand, such as the moderator, who looked more and more like Christiane Amanpour (CNN): “I’m repeating myself, but on purpose.”

In the consciousness of the younger generation, Putinism also works like poison. The ruthlessness that is evident in the occupation of the largest nuclear power plant in Europe as well as in the acceptance of the deaths of many young Russians, which Putin – the subject of our weekend report – had to admit yesterday.

The corona horror graphics are almost gone in the TV news, but there are reports and pictures of the war. The talk shows still have only one topic and that is now Ukraine and no longer the virus.

In such extreme situations, one likes to remember a sentence attributed to Martin Luther: “If I knew that the world would end tomorrow, I would still plant an apple tree today.” Anyone who does not use the time that remains is Putin’s victim.
Also a turning point, by the way: Christian Drosten ends his Corona podcast, and Karl Lauterbach now warns of meat.

Henry Kissinger, doyen of Western foreign policy, explained our age as a persistent, sometimes desperate search for a grand ordering concept: “Chaos looms, but at the same time there is an unprecedented world order.”

But it is threatened by weapons of mass destruction, the collapse of states, environmental destruction, genocide and the spread of new technologies. Kissinger wrote this in 2014, eight years before the maximum chaos that Vladimir Putin is now wreaking.

The Kremlin autocrat is also talking about a new world order, but it is an old one, one with the Soviet Union 2.0 as the superpower, which is currently only indicated by caravans full of war equipment. In our weekend report, we explore the “new vulnerability” – and that what matters is not Moscow, but Beijing.

Kissinger knew this best, writing about China: “The search for a world order in our time will make it necessary to include the perspectives of societies whose reality is different and self-contained.”

Historian Niall Ferguson predicts Cold War between the West and China.

The historian Niall Ferguson sees a new Cold War developing between the West and China, not between the West and Russia. In an interview with the Handelsblatt he says about…

  • the change of course in German politics: “There is enormous emotional support for Ukraine in Germany and Europe. I don’t miss Angela Merkel, I think it’s good what Olaf Scholz is doing now. The promised upgrade does not come for free.”
  • the prospects: “I fear that our enthusiasm for Volodomir Zelenskiy will wane as soon as he is defeated. The Ukrainians will fare like the Kurds: loved by the West but not sufficiently supported.”
  • the sanctions: “As long as the tanks don’t run out of gas and the soldiers don’t run out of food and ammunition, sanctions won’t decide who wins on the battlefield. It was a colossal mistake by the West to believe that threats of sanctions would deter Putin.”

Albert Einstein is recommended for those who are too belligerent: “I’m not sure with what weapons the third world war will be fought, but in the fourth world war they will fight with sticks and stones.”

As is well known, the anti-Putin sanctions announced with great fanfare are so full of holes that the two largest Russian financial institutions, Sberbank and Gazprombank, as usual, the financial transfers for the undisturbed purchase of gas, oil and coal for Germany and others can continue. The social peace in this country should not be endangered. This organized half-heartedness bothers Ottmar Edenhofer, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research.

In the Handelsblatt he says: “Europe should no longer be supplied with Russian gas. That’s unfortunate, but Putin is banking on confrontation and using energy as a weapon. If we continue to rely on him as a gas supplier, I see the danger of a strategic game in which he has the upper hand.”

The expert advises saving energy, LNG liquid gas, even increasing the use of coal-fired power plants in the short term and pushing ahead with the expansion of renewable energies in the medium term. One would not have expected such assessments from the rigid climate warner – but that was before Putin’s war.

Volodymyr Zelenskiy: In “post-heroism” we actually got rid of such heroic figures, now there is one again.

My cultural tip for the weekend: “Servants of the People”, the comedy TV series with Volodomir Selenski on Arte. In 2015, Ukrainian television ran the story of a teacher who becomes president after his anti-corruption video suddenly becomes an internet hit. Four years later, the main actor of this enigmatic fun format was actually president.

He played the role of the head of government even better than he did in the role of a comedian playing a head of government. Incidentally, in Russia the series “Servant of the People” was such a hit with the public that it had to be cancelled.

A play on Selenski’s role can be found in our weekend focus: “The Freedom Hero Who Came Out of the TV”. In “post-heroism” we actually got rid of such heroic figures, now there is one again. He recently asked Putin for direct talks: “If you don’t want to run away, sit down at the negotiating table with me, I have time. But not at a distance of 30 meters – I’m a neighbor after all. I do not bite. I’m a normal guy. Sit with me, tell me what you’re afraid of.” Sounds like Udo Lindenberg’s text about Erich Honecker (“Ey Honey”).

And then there is the commercial vehicle company Daimler Truck, which was only recently spun off from the Daimler Group, which is now raised. Together with Hannover Re, it is included in the German stock index (Dax) on March 21.

The Nivea group Beiersdorf and Siemens Energy have to leave the Börsenbundesliga. The newcomers meet the “fast entry rule” and are among the 33 most valuable German stock exchange companies. Daimler Truck even has a market value of almost 20 billion euros. As the double chairman of the supervisory board, Joe Kaeser is doubly affected by the Dax decision: things went uphill at Daimler Truck and downhill at Siemens Energy.

From Aristotle we learn: “To attribute the greatest and most beautiful to chance would be far too careless.”

I wish you a great, nice weekend, whether it came about by chance or not.

It greets you cordially

Her

Hans Jürgen Jakobs

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