Alexander Graf Lambsdorff is ambassador to Moscow. In times of war, he has to maintain contact with a country whose government prefers to insult Germany
Recently Alexander Graf Lambsdorff had a memorable encounter. One of the kind you remember for the rest of your life. Lambsdorff had just spent an hour touring an old, impressive building in Moscow. At the end, the woman who had guided him whispered to him: “Thank you, Germany.”
Lambsdorff was confused. He usually hears almost every day how vile Germany behaves. He asked the woman what she was thanking for. The Russian answered with tears in her eyes: “For your country to take in all those who no longer see a future in my country.” Lambsdorff says today that he “had a lump in his throat.” But he also knew at that moment why he enjoyed his job so much. Because Russia is not just a despot and his fans. But also from people like this woman.
On a cloudy winter day, Alexander Graf Lambsdorff is sitting in a Berlin restaurant. Visit home. The former FDP politician has been ambassador in Moscow since August last year. He has one of the most important and probably the most difficult jobs that currently exists in German diplomacy: He has to maintain relations with a country whose president brought the war back to Europe with the attack on Ukraine and thus plunged Germany into crisis has. To a country that once sought closeness to Germany and now regularly insults the ambassador.
Can he do that, this Lambsdorff, who was known as a politician for his outspoken manner? Who, with a view to Russia, called for personal sanctions to be imposed on Russian government officials in the event of human rights violations in 2020? And who is now not allowed to give in to Putin and still has to develop a diplomatic connection with him?