Russia’s absorption of Ukrainian Crimea on March 18 came as a shock to the entire European community, but especially to Germany. Both Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel and Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier have referred to the Russian seizure of the territory of another country as a breach of taboo: for the first time since the end of the World War II, one country has incorporated a portion of another into its territory. But the decision of Russian President Vladimir Putin was only the conclusion of months of prologue, in which the German-Russian relationship was gravely altered. And if Berlin has till now, for historic, geographic, and strategic reasons, still meant to maintain contact with Moscow, Putin’s Russia lost in February and March a Germany that served as one of its most committed and sympathetic advocates in the West.
Posted on: Wed, 01 Oct 2014 07:40:31 +0000
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