TRADING WEEKS: The Germans Just Love Russia

Tuesday, April 1, 2014

The Germans Just Love Russia

A 'Country of Russia Apologists'?

German news magazine Der Spiegel has published an article about the views many prominent and not-so-prominent Germans hold of Russia and president Putin. The article's tone is a mixture of bemused and slightly aghast. In spite of the fact that Russia and especially Putin are demonized with great verve in the Western media (including Germany's), it seems German citizens from all walks of life and all political camps are highly devoted fans of Russia and its president. They are therefore by and large A-OK with him recently grabbing the Crimea from out under Kiev.
An excerpt:

“Should the West chart a course of confrontation with Russia following Moscow's annexation of Crimea? Many prominent Germans aren't so sure. Sympathy for Russia is alive and well in the country.
Is it acceptable for a person to be sympathetic towards or have an understanding for Russia's actions in Crimea? Are Moscow's claims justifiable? Did the West provoke Russian President Vladimir Putin? For weeks, this debate has dominated the public discussion in Germany like no other. Generally, foreign policy remains a niche topic for experts. Russia has proven to be the exception.
The Crimean crisis has been the main issue in newspaper editorials and the topic of discussion on talk shows for weeks now. On websites, Crimea is leading in clicks and has emerged as the dominant issue in Internet forum discussions. Nothing, it seems, is as polarizing as the question of whether Moscow's annexation of Crimea was a justifiable reaction to NATO's expansion into Eastern Europe or if it was acting in violation of international law, thus making any sympathy for the move unacceptable.
Those expressing understanding for Russia's move are clearly dominating the Internet forums and talk shows. One former German chancellor, Helmut Schmidt, even declared that the situation in Ukraine is dangerous "because the West has gotten so terribly worked up about it." The question of whether Putin's actions were legitimate didn't even seem to interest him. "I find it entirely understandable," he said. Another former chancellor, Gerhard Schröder, admitted that he himself hadn't always respected international law.
The long line of general forgiveness extends from Philipp Missfelder, the foreign affairs spokesman for the parliamentary group of Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives, to German feminist intellectual leader Alice Schwarzer, from the left-wing to middle-class households and even deep into the conservative camp. Armin Laschet, who heads Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party in the populous state of North Rhine-Westphalia, has even warned against anti-Putin populism.
Be they people who simply romanticize Russia, those with a penchant for realpolitik, those nostalgic for the Soviet Union or just armchair leftists, there are so many people seemingly sympathetic to the annexation that many are scratching their heads and asking if Germany is a country of Russia apologists.”

(emphasis added)
This is simply too funny. No matter what one thinks of Putin and his latest antics, it shows the complete failure of a truly massive elite promotion. For years it has been nigh impossible to come across news reports about Russia on German TV in which even a single sympathetic word was uttered about Putin. He is regularly presented as the devil incarnate in the German mainstream media, just as happens in the US.
So if the goal was 'education' or 'indoctrination', depending on one's viewpoint, it has proven to be a complete non-starter. In fact, it seems to have backfired mightily. One rarely sees so many people from otherwise diametrically opposed political camps of one mind on a burning issue of the day and concurrently contradicting the 'officially approved message' with such vehemence.
Here's hoping that 'anthropogenic global warming' is next, especially as we have noticed that a major new AGW promotion is currently underway, in utter defiance of the (never mentioned) fact that there has been no warming in 17 years, 5 months and counting (more on the latest developments on this front soon).