Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel defended her policies toward Russia before invading Ukraine in February, saying she no longer had the power to influence Vladimir Putin. She said she is trying to convene European talks with the Russian president and French President Emmanuel Macron in the summer of 2021. “But I didn’t have the strength to advocate for myself,” she told Spiegel News. “Really everyone knew: She will be gone in the fall,” she said After serving her four terms as Federal Chancellor, Merkel resigned in December. She made her final visit to Moscow in August 2021 and told a German news magazine: “You are at the end of power politics”.
She added, “For Putin, power is the only thing that matters.” She said it was important that Putin brought Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to his final meeting. Before that, she pointed out, they had met one-on-one. Many say Merkel and his other EU leaders should have taken a tougher stance against the Kremlin in the face of Putin’s invasion, which followed weeks of massive military build-up on the Ukrainian border. people claim Roderich Kiesewetter, a foreign policy expert with the Christian Democratic Party (CDU), said he knows Putin is trying to divide and weaken Europe but believes “soft power” is the right approach. ing. Before the invasion, he argued that Germany was too dependent on Russian gas In an interview with Der Spiegel, Merkel said her position on Ukraine in the Minsk peace talks gave Kyiv time to better defend itself against Russian forces.
A ceasefire was signed in Minsk during a proxy war in the Donbas region after Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimea in 2014. However, key points such as disarmament and international oversight have not been implemented. Chancellor Angela Merkel said she did not regret that she resigned in December. Because her government is involved not only in the Ukrainian crisis but also in conflicts in Moldova, Georgia, Syria, and Libya, she feels Russia is not getting involved and moving forward. Both she and Putin had first-hand experience of life in communist East Germany. Putin speaks fluent German and Merkel speaks a little Russian.
