War against Ukraine: ++ Gauck for arms deliveries ++

Ex-Federal President Gauck speaks out in favor of supporting Ukraine with weapons. Russia’s foreign minister rejects speculation that Putin is ill. The developments in the live blog.

According to the former German President Joachim Gauck, arms deliveries to the Ukraine are important for their fight for freedom against the Russian attackers. “Without the weapons of the Allies in World War II, there would have been a Europe under Nazi rule,” Gauck said in an interview with “Bild”. Ukraine must be allowed to say what it needs to oppose Russia. “If people then say to us: We want to fight for our freedom, we’ll even risk our lives, then it’s not up to us to explain to them from a safe place what the right thing is,” said the ex-president. “That would be callous and highly arrogant.” Nevertheless, politicians must continue to talk to Russian President Vladimir Putin, said Gauck. “Responsible politics must also talk to dictators. We must never do without diplomacy.” However, it is important to negotiate from a position of strength. That also “proved to be correct during the Cold War.”

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has denied rumors that Kremlin boss Vladimir Putin has fallen ill. “I don’t think that reasonable people can see signs of any kind of illness or infirmity in this person,” Lavrov said in response to a question from French TV channel TF1 on Sunday. Putin, who will be 70 in October, appears in public “every day”. “You can see him on screens, read and listen to his speeches,” Lavrov said, according to a statement released by the Russian Foreign Ministry. Putin’s health and personal life are taboo subjects in Russia and almost never discussed in public. Putin, who has been in control of Russia’s fortunes for more than two decades, ordered a military operation in Ukraine on February 24. Thousands of people have been killed since then and millions of Ukrainians have been forced to flee. The West imposed unprecedented sanctions on Russia.

According to a newspaper report, the Federal Foreign Office, the Federal Ministry of the Interior and the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media (BKM) have agreed on criteria for the admission of Kremlin critics from Russia who are particularly at risk. The newspapers of the “Funke Mediengruppe” report that the endangered groups of people will be helped faster and less bureaucratically with a residence permit to flee Russia. After a case study, they receive permission for a longer stay in Germany and not, as in the past, only a limited Schengen visa for a maximum of 90 days. According to the report, the groups of people at risk include human rights defenders threatened by political persecution, members of the opposition, employees of human rights organizations and scientists, but also journalists who are specifically endangered.

According to a newspaper report, almost 143 million euros in assets belonging to Russian oligarchs in German accounts have been frozen since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. As of May 23, a total of 142,990,409.35 euros have been confiscated from Russian companies and institutions under EU law, reports the newspaper “Bild”, citing information from the Federal Ministry of Finance. Accordingly, the value of confiscated assets at the end of February shortly after the start of the war was 342,000 euros. By March 21, German financial institutions reported to the Bundesbank that around 95 million oligarchs were frozen.