Dhe German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock is making her first visit to Moscow with concentrated reservations. Her encounter with veteran Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov ends with the same strained politeness it began three hours earlier. Possibly the mood following the conversation is even a little frostier, even if both make verbal opening moves during their joint public appearance that refer to closeness and common ground. Lavrov praises the rising trade balance between Russia and Germany (and fails to mention that this is happening despite the existing sanctions), Baerbock has positive figures on cultural and scientific exchange ready: 14,000 Russian students are currently enrolled at German universities, a record ; more than 1000 scientific cooperation agreements existed, more than 360,000 Russians learned German, that is “more than anywhere else in the world”. Cooperation in the fight once morest climate change, such as the promotion of hydrogen technology, is also on the speaking notes of both ministers.
But then the differences come: You have a “thick meeting folder” with you, says Baerbock, because there are “a whole series of major, sometimes fundamental, differences of opinion”. And Lavrov replies that he has declared his willingness to work “with the new federal government” because “there are enough problems”. It begins with the security guarantees that Russia requested in writing from America and NATO at the end of last year in the form of draft treaties; “Now we are waiting for an answer”. Lavrov then addresses the conflict in eastern Ukraine, in which the West is making an “ineffective attempt” to see Russia as a partner in the conflict. More detailed allegations follow later regarding the Bundeswehr presence in Lithuania and American exercises in the east of NATO territory.
Baerbock calls the deployment of troops a threat
Baerbock derives the causes of the current tensions more fundamentally. She starts with her morning visit to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier on the Kremlin wall, then speaks of the Germans’ continuing gratitude for Russia’s willingness to reconcile, and comes to the European peace order, the common rules of which everyone in Europe should be able to rely on. For Germany, too, these rules in the “common European house” are a “livelihood”. And for this reason there is “no other way” than to insist that these rules and their institutions, such as those of the European Court of Human Rights, are observed, says Baerbock and leads the argument with reference to the Russian opposition to the goal: “And I am also thinking of the Navalny case and Memorial.”
With a view to the Russian troop build-up on the Ukrainian border, the German minister publicly repeated a question that she had obviously confronted Lavrov with earlier in the conversation: how should such a concentration of soldiers and equipment be understood other than “as a military threat”? Lavrov responds, speaking at length regarding the right of every country to station its soldiers on its own territory where it sees fit, and ends by stating: “We cannot accept any demand that affects troops on our national territory.” Then, conversely, he accuses the Bundeswehr of having a “permanent and substantial” presence in Lithuania with a troop formation – and uses the formula from the NATO-Russia file, with which a threshold for a troop presence of NATO partners in the eastern Member States had been formulated.
At the Kremlin Wall: Baerbock at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Moscow
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Image: Imago
In the public balance sheet of their conversation, both ministers show how much the relationship got stuck in mutual accusations, contract interpretations, misinterpretations and deliberate misunderstandings. This applies to security issues between Russia and NATO, but it also applies to the deliberations on resolving the Ukraine conflict in the so-called Normandy format, in which France and Germany are taking part alongside Russia and Ukraine. Here, too, the constructive efforts that most recently led to a summit meeting of the four heads of state and government in 2019 have long since given way to a situation in which confrontational allegations dominate.
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