Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier admitted mistakes in his Russia policy on Monday. Speaking to journalists at Bellevue Palace, he said: “My sticking to Nord Stream 2 was clearly a mistake. We stuck to bridges that Russia no longer believed in and that our partners warned us about.”
The construction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, through which Russian natural gas is to be routed to Germany, was controversial from the start. Despite this, the federal government had always defended the project – it only stopped it on February 22 of this year. As Angela Merkel’s foreign minister and Gerhard Schröder’s head of the chancellery, Steinmeier shared responsibility for Germany’s Russia policy for almost 15 years. Schröder is now Chairman of the Board of Directors of Nord Stream 2 AG, which is wholly owned by the Russian Gazprom group.
In view of the war in Ukraine that the Russian President is waging, Steinmeier now said: “My assessment was that Vladimir Putin would not put up with the complete economic, political and moral ruin of his country for his imperial madness – there I am , like others, erred.” He now has to draw a “bitter balance sheet”: “We failed with the establishment of a common European house in which Russia is included. We failed with the attempt to integrate Russia into a common security architecture.”
Steinmeier said that responsibility for the war lay with Putin, “we shouldn’t take it upon ourselves – but that doesn’t mean that we don’t have to rethink things where we made mistakes.” However, one thing is clear: “With a Russia under Putin, there will be no return to the status quo before the war.”
The Ukrainian Ambassador in Berlin, Andrij Melnyk, had the Federal President on Sunday in daily mirror accused of having “created a spider web of contacts with Russia for decades”. “For Steinmeier, the relationship with Russia was and remains something fundamental, even sacred, no matter what happens – even the aggressive war doesn’t play a major role,” said Melnyk.
The Federal President only said: “I suffer a lot for the people in Ukraine. After the beginning of 2014, no other country has shaped my work so much.”
The federal government defended Steinmeier against Melnyk’s allegations. The deputy government spokesman Wolfgang Büchner said that we understand the exceptional situation in which Ukraine finds itself in this appalling war. However, criticism of the Federal President is rejected.
Meanwhile, former Chancellor Angela Merkel defended the decision not to admit Ukraine to NATO despite massive criticism from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Merkel “stands by her decisions in connection with the 2008 NATO summit in Bucharest,” said a spokeswoman for Merkel. Selensky had asked Merkel to travel to Bucha, where hundreds of dead were found after Russian troops withdrew. There, Merkel can see “what the policy of making concessions to Russia has led to in 14 years,” Zelensky said.