Merkel's statements on Russia under fire
In an interview with the Hungarian website Partizán, former German chancellor Angela Merkel said that she had sought to establish a new EU format for dialogue with Russian President Vladimir Putin before the outbreak of the Ukraine war in summer 2021, but the initiative failed due to resistance from the Baltic states and Poland. Merkel's statements have drawn criticism from Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland in particular. Europe's press takes stock.
Too little diplomacy was never the problem
Columnist Roman Goncharenko from Deutsche Welle's Ukrainian service cannot understand why Merkel still believes that more talks with Putin could have prevented the war in Ukraine:
“The former chancellor failed to mention that the latest efforts by US President Donald Trump and the resumption of contacts failed to stop Russia's war against Ukraine. Merkel also failed to mention that there had been numerous contacts before the Russian invasion of Ukraine - Western leaders, including Olaf Scholz, who replaced her as German Chancellor, met with the Russian president. There was also the summit between Putin and US President Joe Biden in Geneva in June 2021, as well as negotiations there just a few weeks before the Russian attack on Ukraine - both at the Russia-Nato and Russia-US level.”
Europe bickers while Ukraine suffers
Merkel's criticism over Europe's hopeless disunity over Ukraine hits the nail on the head, says The Daily Telegraph:
“Friedrich Merz, Merkel's successor, has not joined a 'coalition of the willing' led by Macron and Sir Keir Starmer that proposes a European peacekeeping force on the ground. The Baltics remain as resolutely Russophobia as ever. ... Hungary and Slovakia oppose EU military aid to Kyiv and continue to import Russian oil and gas. The newly-elected parliament of the Czech Republic is dominated by a Ukraine-sceptic party. ... One thing is clear after three and a half years of war, and that is that Europe still has no united position on how to face down Putin, and it's Ukraine that is paying the price.”
Former chancellor unrepentant and vain
Merkel has discredited herself, writes Handelsblatt:
“Her choice of words shows that the former chancellor still sees no reason to reflect self-critically on her Russia policy. Her refusal to do this is the most glaring omission of her post-chancellor period. Germany's ties to Russian energy, forced by Merkel, proved to be a mistake of historic proportions - and fuelled a sense of mistrust among Germany's eastern neighbours that still lingers. Why Merkel still refuses to admit this mistake only she knows. ... It would be good for the preservation of her political legacy if the former chancellor returned to the attitude that was the secret of her success as chancellor: unpretentiousness.”
Bucharest 2008 marked a turning point
Merkel is to blame for the fact that Russia felt encouraged to attack its neighbouring countries, writes Marko Mihkelson, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the Estonian parliament and a member of the Estonian Reform Party, in Õhtuleht:
“Putin could perhaps have been stopped at the Nato summit in Bucharest in 2008. Unfortunately, it was Merkel who blocked an action plan to admit Ukraine and Georgia to Nato. Russia saw this as a green light for its wars of aggression, first against Georgia and then against Ukraine - and also for the Nord Stream pipeline policy and for the Russian war machinery.”
Under the Kremlin's influence?
Latvijas Avīze questions Merkel's objectivity on this topic:
“There's no point trying to prove now that it wasn't Poland's and the Baltic states' objections to a new negotiating format between the European Union and Russia or the lack of such a format that prompted the Kremlin to go to war. ... The only interesting question here is Merkel's motivation. ... Were all her political measures and positions self-determined or were they influenced by other factors, as was the case with her predecessor Gerhard Schröder, who was given lucrative positions in Gazprom's structures after ending his political career?”