Angela Merkel Defends Ties With Russia

Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel has told the BBC the gas deals she made with Russia were intended to help German firms and kept the peace with Moscow.

She also insisted the war with Ukraine would have started earlier if she hadn’t blocked Kyiv’s entry into Nato in 2008.
Angela Merkel led Germany for 16 years.

She was in office during the financial crisis, the 2015 migrant crisis and, significantly, Russia’s 2014 invasion of Ukraine.

She says she believes the war in Ukraine would have started sooner and would likely have been worse, if Kyiv had begun the path to Nato membership in 2008.

“We would have seen military conflict even earlier. It was completely clear to me that President Putin would not have stood idly by and watched Ukraine join Nato.

“And back then, Ukraine as a country would certainly not have been as prepared as it was in February 2022.”
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky disagrees.

He describes Mrs Merkel’s Nato decision, backed by then-French President Nicolas Sarkozy, as a clear “miscalculation” that emboldened Russia.

Mrs Merkel was involved in several diplomatic initiatives that failed to achieve a lasting peace
In a rare interview since she stepped down from politics three years ago, Mrs Merkel expresses concern about Vladimir Putin’s renewed threats of using nuclear weapons.

The two leaders got to know each other well over the course of two decades.

“We must do everything possible to prevent the use of nuclear weapons,” the former German Chancellor says.

“The potential is frightening.”

She has just published her memoir, Freedom. And the timing is interesting.
She says she did everything in her power to ensure peaceful means of co-operation with Russia.

In fact, Mr Putin launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine just months after she left office.

Mrs Merkel insists she tried to curb Russian attacks on Ukraine using diplomacy and negotiations, which – she admits – ultimately failed.

Under Angela Merkel, Germany not only became reliant on Russia for energy, but on China and the US for trade. Those decisions have not stood the test of time.

But when I ask if she misses all that power and politics, her swift answer is: “No, not at all.”

BBC/Ejiofor Ezeifeoma