In her own words, Merkel also sees “a great tragedy” in the invasion. She wonders if that could have been prevented. But she never shared Putin’s assessment that Russia was “permanently humiliated” by the West, Merkel said. But of course you knew how he thought.
Merkel pointed out that Putin had already told her during her visit to Sochi in 2007 that for him the collapse of the Soviet Union was “the worst thing of the 20th century”. It was already very clear back then that “there is a great deal of dissent”. And ultimately it was never possible to “really end the Cold War”.
Merkel rejects allegations of naivety
Merkel rejected accusations that she was naive in dealing with the Russian head of state. “Putin’s hatred, Putin’s – yes, one has to say – enmity goes against the Western democratic model,” said the ex-Chancellor. She was “not blue-eyed or anything”, but warned: “You know that he wants to destroy Europe. He wants to destroy the European Union because he sees it as a precursor to NATO.”
She said she didn’t want to apologize. “Diplomacy isn’t wrong if it doesn’t work. So I don’t see that I have to say now: ‘That was wrong’, and I won’t apologize for that either.”
Merkel also defended that in 2008 she opposed NATO’s eastward expansion to include Ukraine and Georgia. If NATO had given the two countries accession prospects at the time, Putin “could have done enormous damage in Ukraine.”
Merkel advocates deterrence
Merkel pleaded for an increase in military deterrence against Russia. “It’s the only language Putin understands,” she said. She rejected responsibility for the lack of investment in the German Bundeswehr and indirectly assigned it to the former coalition partner SPD.
Merkel comments on Russia policy
For the first time since her departure as German chancellor, Angela Merkel allowed herself to be questioned in detail by a journalist in a packed Berlin theater. Merkel also had to explain her recently extremely controversial Russia policy.
“Now I’m so glad that we’ve finally decided, after the whole world has armed drones, that we’ll buy some too. And it wasn’t my fault that certain other things couldn’t take place,” Merkel said. And further: “It was a very tough struggle to invest in military deterrence at all.”
“Complete trust” in Scholz’s government
In her own words, she still has “complete trust” in the government of her successor, Olaf Scholz (SPD). The transition of government went very well, said Merkel – half a year after the transfer of office to Scholz. There are people at work who are not “newcomers” and who know the situation. Merkel was chancellor for 16 years. It was very clear to her that it was the right time to stop.
When asked how she was doing, Merkel said she was doing very well personally. But the “break” of the Russian war against Ukraine is also very preoccupying for her. She is sometimes depressed. Merkel talked about long hikes in winter on the Baltic Sea, she had listened to many podcasts. She didn’t get bored, she got through the days really well. She used to only have “appointments, appointments, appointments”. She is coping very well with her new phase of life.
No mediation role sought
Merkel does not currently see herself as a mediator in the Ukraine war. When asked if she would call Putin, she said: “I don’t have the impression that it’s of any use at the moment.” There is “little to discuss in my opinion”.
Merkel also pointed out that she would only intervene at the request of the federal government. “My understanding of office is that I will not do anything that the German government would not ask me to do.” Merkel’s predecessor Gerhard Schröder (SPD) traveled to Moscow after the war began to speak to Putin – without informing the government.
Asked about the US sanctions against the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project, Merkel said she was very angry that the US, under President Joe Biden, had imposed sanctions on companies that were active in the project. You do that with Iran, but not with an ally, she made clear. An agreement reached with the USA last summer was a “quantum leap”.
First detailed public statement
Merkel made public statements for the first time since the end of her 16-year term in December. At the event “So what is my country?” She was interviewed by the “Spiegel” author and writer Alexander Osang.
So far, Merkel has spoken twice about the war in Ukraine. The day after the Russian invasion, she condemned it “in the strongest possible terms” and spoke of a “profound caesura”. Last week she called Russia’s war of aggression “barbaric” at a union event.