This time there is no mistaking it: congratulating Vladimir Putin on an election that wasn’t one because Russia didn’t have one is out of the question. A very large coalition in the Federal Republic agrees on this. And the Federal President is joining in.
In principle, the whole thing is not that simple. Usually, according to the so-called diplomatic customs, there is a letter from the highest authority conveying congratulations. In a sense, regardless of the person.
However, this has been controversial for some time. One example is the congratulations to the Iranian mullahs’ regime for 40 years of revolution. That was in 2019. Frank-Walter Steinmeier had to put up with harsh criticism.
Because the estrangement between Europe and Russia has grown
Or in 2018, when President Steinmeier was still writing to Putin. At the time, Steinmeier took the opportunity to make clear his concern that Europe and Russia were far from a cooperative peace order, and at the same time to express the hope that Putin would use his time in office to counteract the alienation. The opposite has happened.
With that in mind, writing is now forbidden. The autocrat in the Kremlin doesn’t understand this language, not anymore. Maybe the other one that makes it clear where it becomes unspeakable? That’s not certain, but it makes the limits clear.
It will still be more difficult. On the one hand, there is what Steinmeier said at the time in defense of his Iran letter: He was interested in “having access to opportunities for discussion even in the conflict.” The president declared, “We need both,” “to actually make a difference in this world for the better.”
On the other hand, the “values-driven foreign policy” postulated by the traffic light coalition requires clear action. Anyone who now wants to distinguish between first and second-rate autocrats is making a mistake in the standards. Putin is a start here. Everyone involved knows that falling behind the reaction to him is out of the question.
Source: Tagesspiegel
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