The co-chair of the German Social Democratic Party (SpD), Lars Klingbeil, he admitted the mistakes of his own training in politics towards Russia. “In our search for common ground, we have often overlooked what separated us. It was a mistake, ”said Klingbeil, who leads the SpD with Saskia Esken.
After the end of the Cold War, the party believed that relations with Moscow would simply improve. According to Klingbeil, this has created "blind spots in our relations with Russia and led to" errors "in dealing with the country. Now, the SpD co-president underlined, the statement that security and stability in Europe can only exist with and not against Russia is no longer valid. For Klingbeil, in fact, “today it is a question of organizing security from Russia” which “has abandoned the common security system and the common system of values”. Therefore, added the co-president of the SpD, “our security must work without Russia. Klingbeil then mentioned four errors of assessment made by the party after the end of the Cold War. First, the SPD failed to recognize that Russian President Vladimir Putin was consolidating his power in an autocratic way and applying power politics.
Secondly, the "change with trade", that is the attempt by Germany and the SPD to bring Russia closer to the West and to promote reforms through economic relations, did not work. Germany then became dependent on Russia for energy supplies and did not sufficiently take into account the interests of Central and Eastern European countries, which have lost confidence. Finally, Klingbeil declared that he could not imagine a normalization with Russia even in the long term, because "a return to the status quo of before the war against Ukraine cannot and will not be".
Read also other news on Nova News
Follow us on the social channels of Nova News on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Telegram
