Mario Mehren, the boss of the BASF subsidiary Wintershall Dea, always had a lot of understanding for Russia. Now, on the anniversary of the war, he apologizes – in a personal statement.
Mario Mehren had a lot of understanding for Russia for a long time. Very long, very much. At the Wintershall gas group, he has been in charge of the Russian business since 2011 and has been CEO since 2015. In the German economy he was regarded as someone who understood Russia, and he undoubtedly lived up to his reputation. The Russians, he warned in 2017, were “slowly losing patience.” At that time, Crimea had been annexed three years ago and the EU had imposed sanctions. It’s time for a sober assessment, Mehren demanded: “The sanctions have damaged the Russian economy and trade between Russia and Europe.” It’s time to lift them. As late as 2019, he announced that his group was “happily continuing to invest” in Russia. That’s how you can go wrong.
On Friday, the anniversary of the war, Mehren took a remarkable step: he showed remorse. It’s time to “take a critical look at our relationship with Russia,” he wrote in a personal statement that he shared on the LinkedIn social network. The annexation of Crimea was the first warning signal. “Today we all know that painfully.”
Through its gas production in Siberia, the BASF subsidiary was more intertwined with Moscow than any other company. Vladimir Putin also met Mehren at his estate on the Black Sea. “All of us, including us as a company, have blatantly underestimated what Putin’s Russia is capable of,” Mehren now writes. An expensive mistake: The group has therefore written off seven billion euros.