**East-West relations** During Annalena Baerbock’s visit to Kiev and Moscow, it became clear: the Greens and the SPD have different ideas about Russia.
This Tuesday, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) is meeting her Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov in Moscow. After last week’s talks between Lavrov’s deputy and his American counterpart in Geneva, and between a Russian delegation and NATO representatives in Brussels, Baerbock’s visit is a new attempt to thaw East-West relations. But even before arriving in Moscow, it is clear that the divisions in Berlin over how to act towards Russia are weakening Baerbock’s position.
On Monday, Baerbock visited Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba in Kiev. There, Baerbock said there is no country that has concerned her as much as Ukraine since she took office in early December; since the beginning of December, Russia has gathered an estimated 100,000 troops plus heavy equipment on the Ukrainian border.
Prior to the visit, the Ukrainian ambassador in Berlin called on Baerbock and Germany to supply weapons for defence. Baerbock rejected that request, citing German history.
“The territorial integrity of Ukraine is not in question for us and for me personally,” Baerbock said in Kiev. “New aggression, we have always stressed, comes at a high price.” The difficulty for Baerbock is that there is no agreement in the German coalition on what that price should be.
In the government of Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD), which was sworn in in December, Scholz’s SPD is diametrically opposed to Minister Baerbock’s Greens when it comes to the most obvious sanction Germany could impose in the event of an invasion of Ukraine. The SPD remains committed to the controversial Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, which transports Russian gas through the Baltic Sea bed directly to the coast of Mecklenburg. Former SPD Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, now head of the supervisory board of the Russian oil company Rosneft, signed the contract for the first pipeline with Vladimir Putin in 2005 and was later the architect of the second.
In the meantime, Nord Stream 2 has also been fully constructed. Its operational start-up now depends on a legal review by the national electricity network agency. In mid-December, in Brussels, Latvian Prime Minister Krisjan Karins demanded that Scholz include the commissioning of Nord Stream 2 in the package of possible sanctions. Scholz then called the project a “private economic intention”, and the review by the power grid agency “completely apolitical”.
Baerbock and the Greens see things differently from the start. In addition to the climate aspect – the pipeline will have to run with gas for around 40 years in order to be profitable, and the Greens want to be rid of gas long before 40 years – the Greens and the third coalition partner, the FDP, also point to the geopolitical aspect of the gas pipeline. If the gas can reach Europe via Nord Stream 2, Russia will no longer have to pay transmission fees to Ukraine and gas deliveries to Ukraine, for example, can easily be stopped. Moreover, according to Eastern European government leaders, in the event of an attack on Ukraine, Russia would no longer have to consider the gas infrastructure there and important export revenues would not be jeopardised.
Many Social Democrats do not think this will be such a problem. The Prime Minister of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania Manuela Schwesig (SPD), who is considered a great promise in the party, called Russia a “reliable partner”. SPD General Secretary Kevin Kühnert, who sees himself as the guardian of social democratic values, said last week that “international conflicts are being brought closer” just to bury the Nord Stream 2 project. Scholz has only expressed himself in the flimsiest of terms on the subject in recent days.
Russia does not have much to fear from Berlin from other quarters either. Friedrich Merz, who will be elected as the new chairman of the CDU next weekend, said in an interview on Sunday that excluding Russia from the international banking system SWIFT could be an “atomic bomb” under the “financial markets”. Such a sanction would hurt Germany’s exporting country too much, Merz said. The German newspaper FAZ noted dryly that after the annexation of Crimea, when exclusion from SWIFT was also considered, the head of the Russian state bank also spoke of a “financial atom bomb”.
Baerbock stressed in Kiev on Monday that “we are not talking about Ukraine without Ukraine”. Except, of course, that last week two out of three talks with Russia took place without Ukraine. For Russia, the US is the main interlocutor. Baerbock’s aim on Tuesday is also to revive the Normandy talks: talks between France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine. Besides goodwill from Moscow, a clear course from Berlin will be indispensable.
Very rough tl;dr: Greens and FDP want to take into account geopolitics and the impact on future CO2-impact (well, that’s just the Greens), SPD (and also CDU/CSU) say ‘Daddy Putin, can we suck you off some more?’
I cant observe this divide for some reason. NS2 and Ukraine is not really a big topic over here but whatever fuels the anti German propaganda i guess.
Some are against Russia invading countries and controlling german politics and others want gas money.
There’s strong arguments in both the pro democracy and the spineless money grabber sides.
The ‘divide’ is principled people with some decency/long-term strategic thinking VS the Mercedes-Volkswagen-BASF-Siemens regime, we all know who usually wins that
Because Germany is a complicated country with complicated history. Things are not simple.
We (Poland) should help German unity by accidentally scuttling some old freighter right on top of the Nord Stream 2.
pretty disgusting ‘peace’ theater germany puts on stage here – yeah peace for them not for others
9 comments
**East-West relations** During Annalena Baerbock’s visit to Kiev and Moscow, it became clear: the Greens and the SPD have different ideas about Russia.
This Tuesday, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) is meeting her Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov in Moscow. After last week’s talks between Lavrov’s deputy and his American counterpart in Geneva, and between a Russian delegation and NATO representatives in Brussels, Baerbock’s visit is a new attempt to thaw East-West relations. But even before arriving in Moscow, it is clear that the divisions in Berlin over how to act towards Russia are weakening Baerbock’s position.
On Monday, Baerbock visited Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba in Kiev. There, Baerbock said there is no country that has concerned her as much as Ukraine since she took office in early December; since the beginning of December, Russia has gathered an estimated 100,000 troops plus heavy equipment on the Ukrainian border.
Prior to the visit, the Ukrainian ambassador in Berlin called on Baerbock and Germany to supply weapons for defence. Baerbock rejected that request, citing German history.
“The territorial integrity of Ukraine is not in question for us and for me personally,” Baerbock said in Kiev. “New aggression, we have always stressed, comes at a high price.” The difficulty for Baerbock is that there is no agreement in the German coalition on what that price should be.
In the government of Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD), which was sworn in in December, Scholz’s SPD is diametrically opposed to Minister Baerbock’s Greens when it comes to the most obvious sanction Germany could impose in the event of an invasion of Ukraine. The SPD remains committed to the controversial Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, which transports Russian gas through the Baltic Sea bed directly to the coast of Mecklenburg. Former SPD Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, now head of the supervisory board of the Russian oil company Rosneft, signed the contract for the first pipeline with Vladimir Putin in 2005 and was later the architect of the second.
In the meantime, Nord Stream 2 has also been fully constructed. Its operational start-up now depends on a legal review by the national electricity network agency. In mid-December, in Brussels, Latvian Prime Minister Krisjan Karins demanded that Scholz include the commissioning of Nord Stream 2 in the package of possible sanctions. Scholz then called the project a “private economic intention”, and the review by the power grid agency “completely apolitical”.
Baerbock and the Greens see things differently from the start. In addition to the climate aspect – the pipeline will have to run with gas for around 40 years in order to be profitable, and the Greens want to be rid of gas long before 40 years – the Greens and the third coalition partner, the FDP, also point to the geopolitical aspect of the gas pipeline. If the gas can reach Europe via Nord Stream 2, Russia will no longer have to pay transmission fees to Ukraine and gas deliveries to Ukraine, for example, can easily be stopped. Moreover, according to Eastern European government leaders, in the event of an attack on Ukraine, Russia would no longer have to consider the gas infrastructure there and important export revenues would not be jeopardised.
Many Social Democrats do not think this will be such a problem. The Prime Minister of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania Manuela Schwesig (SPD), who is considered a great promise in the party, called Russia a “reliable partner”. SPD General Secretary Kevin Kühnert, who sees himself as the guardian of social democratic values, said last week that “international conflicts are being brought closer” just to bury the Nord Stream 2 project. Scholz has only expressed himself in the flimsiest of terms on the subject in recent days.
Russia does not have much to fear from Berlin from other quarters either. Friedrich Merz, who will be elected as the new chairman of the CDU next weekend, said in an interview on Sunday that excluding Russia from the international banking system SWIFT could be an “atomic bomb” under the “financial markets”. Such a sanction would hurt Germany’s exporting country too much, Merz said. The German newspaper FAZ noted dryly that after the annexation of Crimea, when exclusion from SWIFT was also considered, the head of the Russian state bank also spoke of a “financial atom bomb”.
Baerbock stressed in Kiev on Monday that “we are not talking about Ukraine without Ukraine”. Except, of course, that last week two out of three talks with Russia took place without Ukraine. For Russia, the US is the main interlocutor. Baerbock’s aim on Tuesday is also to revive the Normandy talks: talks between France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine. Besides goodwill from Moscow, a clear course from Berlin will be indispensable.
Very rough tl;dr: Greens and FDP want to take into account geopolitics and the impact on future CO2-impact (well, that’s just the Greens), SPD (and also CDU/CSU) say ‘Daddy Putin, can we suck you off some more?’
I cant observe this divide for some reason. NS2 and Ukraine is not really a big topic over here but whatever fuels the anti German propaganda i guess.
Some are against Russia invading countries and controlling german politics and others want gas money.
There’s strong arguments in both the pro democracy and the spineless money grabber sides.
The ‘divide’ is principled people with some decency/long-term strategic thinking VS the Mercedes-Volkswagen-BASF-Siemens regime, we all know who usually wins that
Because Germany is a complicated country with complicated history. Things are not simple.
We (Poland) should help German unity by accidentally scuttling some old freighter right on top of the Nord Stream 2.
pretty disgusting ‘peace’ theater germany puts on stage here – yeah peace for them not for others
Germany bad!
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Now gimme them Upvotes