Gerhard Schröder stirs up ‘uncritical and romantic’ ideas about Russia

Former German chancellor Gerhard Schröder greets Russian president Vladimir Putin in St Petersburg in 2016. Their close friendship saw rising German economic and energy dependency on Russia climaxing in the first Nord Stream undersea gas pipeline. Photograph: Mikhail Svetlov/Getty

SPD Bundestag floor leader Rolf Mützenich: 'Isn’t it time we not only talked about how to fight a war, but also thought about how to freeze a war?' Photograph: Christian Marquatd /Getty First they insisted Mützenich’s words had been interpreted maliciously, then they had a crisis meeting with the Ukrainian ambassador, Oleksii Makeiev.

Mützenich, a leading leftist figure in his party, appears to resent others speaking for him. In a newspaper interview he insisted he was “trained in social and peace science where ‘freeze’ is a concept used to enable temporary local ceasefires and humanitarian ceasefires in a particular situation, which can be transformed into a permanent absence of military violence”.

Similarly, awareness of wartime atrocities in Ukraine and resulting moral obligations today, pale next to guilt over Nazi crimes in the Soviet Union and Red Army war dead. Cold war socialisation was still palpable in an October 2022 public television survey, showing 77 per cent of eastern Germans viewed Russia as a threat to world peace – compared to 88 per cent in western German states.

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