Angela Merkel admits mistakes in her Russia policy: “Reaction to annexation of Crimea was not tough enough” | Abroad

Germany’s defense policy has failed. The former German chancellor admits this in an interview with the German newspaper ‘Die Zeit’, a year after her departure as chancellor. “Germany has increased its defense spending, but has still not reached the NATO target (of investing two percent of GDP in the armed forces, ed.),” said Merkel, “and I myself do not have a fiery day every day. held a speech to advocate for it.”

She acknowledged that Germany “should have reacted more quickly to Russia’s aggressiveness”. The world’s reaction to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 was “not harsh” enough, she said.

In the same interview, she pleads for a diplomatic solution to the war in Ukraine. According to her, the war in Ukraine will “one day” end with negotiations. The ex-chancellor did not want to specify under what conditions she would accept a peace agreement, but rejected a “dictatorial peace”.

Merkel does not distance herself from her energy policy, despite criticism that Europe is now too dependent on Russia. The ex-chancellor has “no regrets” about her support for the construction of the German-Russian natural gas pipeline Nord Stream 2, which her successor Olaf Scholz eventually decided to stop. A ban on the project would have “dangerously worsened” relations with Russia, Merkel said.

“Question marks now cast on decisions made in other times often fail to take into account the context in which they were made,” said Merkel. Germany has been working this year to diversify its energy sources after the war forced all of Europe to consider alternatives to Russian gas and oil.

Merkel resigned last year after 16 years as Chancellor of Germany. During her leadership she maintained good relations with the Kremlin. She has been criticized for this since the war in Ukraine. Yet a majority of Germans continue to miss her. A poll shows the current chancellor worse than his predecessor: a majority of 51 percent see Angela Merkel as the better chancellor, while only 19 percent prefer Scholz.

REVIEW. In her initial reaction to the Russian invasion, Merkel did not want to apologize for her policy towards Russia.