"Lost Influence Over Putin as a Lame-Duck Leader" Defense Statement
[Asia Economy Reporter Yujin Cho] Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel stated that due to lame-duck status at the end of her term, it was impossible to influence Russian President Vladimir Putin's decision to invade Ukraine.
This remark came after former Bundestag President Wolfgang Sch?uble publicly criticized Merkel's 16-year Russia policy as having significant mistakes.
According to the British daily The Guardian and BBC on the 25th (local time), in a recent interview with the German current affairs weekly Der Spiegel, former Chancellor Merkel said, "Everyone thought I was 'someone who was leaving,' so I had no power to push my ideas through."
She explained that when intelligence began to emerge last July and August that President Putin was preparing to invade Ukraine, she met consecutively with President Joe Biden and President Putin to try to resolve the issue through talks, but by then she had already lost almost all negotiating power.
Germany and Russia maintained a long-standing honeymoon relationship due to economic interests such as Germany's high dependence on Russian resources. During her 16-year term, former Chancellor Merkel met President Putin about 60 times and built a close relationship.
She said, "If I had been in a position to take office again in September, I would have continued to push. However, the feeling I got from the last meeting with President Putin in Moscow was clear: 'You are finished from a political power perspective.' For Putin, only power matters."
Regarding evaluations that she did not pay sufficient attention to the anti-Russian, pro-Western revolution called 'Euromaidan' in Ukraine and Russia's forced annexation of the Crimean Peninsula in 2013?2014, Merkel expressed the view that such criticism was unfair.
She said, "People talk as if I did nothing but sign the Minsk ceasefire agreement in September 2014 and say, 'How could you take your eyes off Ukraine?' but it's not that simple."
She emphasized, "There was an election in Germany, and something was always happening in Greece at that time. I even fractured my tailbone."
Although the Minsk agreement, which stipulated troop withdrawal from Ukraine and ceasefire monitoring by international organizations, became ineffective as fighting resumed in less than two weeks, former Chancellor Merkel argued that it bought Ukraine time to reinforce its defense capabilities.
The Guardian reported that she found a Netflix drama that reexamined the role of then British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, who negotiated with Adolf Hitler to prevent war before World War II, interesting and even appeared to compare herself to him.
Regarding criticisms that she created room for Russia to invade by opposing Ukraine's NATO membership in 2008 or that excessive dependence on Russian natural gas and oil caused the European energy crisis, former Chancellor Merkel said she felt "misunderstood."
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
