EIt wasn’t a surprise: Neither Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier nor Chancellor Olaf Scholz congratulated Vladimir Putin on his re-election as Russian President. “There will be no letter to Putin,” said presidential office spokeswoman Cerstin Gammelin to the “Tagesspiegel”. In a statement by Steinmeier distributed on Platform Scholz “did not congratulate” Putin. Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock also did not send any congratulations to Moscow.
Even the omission of the official title makes it clear that Berlin does not consider the election in Russia to be legal. A spokesman for the Foreign Office said that only Putin’s name had been used so far, but not his official title, so nothing would change. “It was not a democratic election,” said spokeswoman Hoffmann. There is no freedom of expression in Russia. “Russia, as the Chancellor has already said, is now a dictatorship” and is under authoritarian rule by Putin. I find it “extremely problematic” that elections were also held in the Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine. “Of course we do not recognize this in any way,” said Hoffmann.
Sometimes it’s a balancing act
In the case of Putin and his re-election, the decision not to congratulate him is comparatively easy to make; in fact, in the current situation, congratulations would hardly have been justified.
This is not always so clear when dealing with authoritarian regimes. In addition to the public non-congratulations, there are different gradations following elections for which congratulations are not a given, as was reported in Berlin on Monday. Instead of congratulating on the election straight away, you can wait until the appointment. This demonstrates a certain distance. In cases where a public and official congratulation seems inappropriate, but diplomatic channels should be kept open, a personal letter is sometimes sent that is not made public.
Things don’t always go smoothly in these diplomatic balancing acts. A few years ago, Steinmeier initially wavered between sending a critical telegram on the occasion of the anniversary of the Islamic Revolution in Iran and not sending a greeting at all. He chose the latter. But by then it was already too late. The German embassy in Tehran had already sent the critical telegram.
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