© Wolfgang Kumm/TASS
In present-day Germany, Russophobia has become the mainstream, with its origins rooted in the stance of top political leaders and powerful media support. Calling Russia an "aggressor state" is common courtesy here, just like demanding that the German government and Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) personally step up supplies of armored assets to Ukraine.
For example, head of the Bundestag Defense Committee Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann (FDP) attacked Chancellor Scholz and accused him of lacking foresight to "slow down the provision of Western tanks to the Armed Forces of Ukraine." Notably, the SPD, the FDP and the Greens make up the ruling coalition in Germany, whose particularly belligerent member is Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock.
The Social Democrats are supersensitive to any reproaches against their fellow party member, the chancellor, and say Olaf Scholz conducts a "thoughtful and balanced" policy. Still, his cautious stance reflects unwillingness to ride before the hounds, for which read Washington. The "independent" Germany’s leader coordinates his every single step with the United States ˗ suffice it to mention the planned delivery of Marder IFVs and Patriot air defense systems to Kiev. Small wonder that SPD foreign policy expert Ralf Stegner told the Berliner Zeitung: "As chairperson of the Bundestag defense committee Ms. Strack-Zimmermann should have been more restrained. When a Ukrainian missile fell in the territory of Poland in November last year, she hastened to blame Russia but later deleted the statement from Twitter."
Many Social Democrats conspicuously justify themselves for their country’s once friendly terms with Russia whenever possible. This is how the same Stegner addresses Ms. Strack-Zimmermann: "Implying the SPD’s fundamental problem in relations with Moscow, she should not forget that the past few years saw both the SPD and the FDP engage in shaping Germany’s Russia policy." Even President Steinmeier has apologized for his party’s "erroneous" policy, with tight-lipped ex-Chancellor Merkel (CDU) admitting that the Minsk agreements were only meant to give Ukraine “valuable time” to “get stronger”. Not a single word about peace or survival of the Donbass elderly and children.
Germany’s dissent-free anti-Russian narrative prohibits even simply assessing root causes of the Ukrainian-Russian conflict which has turned into a NATO war against Russia. Professor Gabriele Krone-Schmalz, who has long lived in our country and worked as a Moscow correspondent for a key German TV channel, is being harshly criticized for what she addresses the German public with. She is author of "Ice Age: How Russia is Demonized and Why It Is So Dangerous", as well as "Understanding Russia: The Battle for Ukraine and the Arrogance of the West."
Why is Frau Professor infuriating those who have promoted freedom of speech enshrined in the country's Constitution for decades? She claims, for example, that not only Russia, as is commonly believed in the West, but also the West itself is to blame for growing distrust. After the Soviet Union collapsed, the West simply defied Russian interests, ignoring Vladimir Putin's "repeated attempts" to establish equal relations between his country and the West, Frau Krone-Schmaltz recalls. Meanwhile, NATO was proceeding with its policy, which "Germany supported quite composedly, to Washington’s displeasure." She calls NATO’s expansion eastwards "one of the biggest mistakes after World War II."
In support of her opinion, Professor Krone-Schmalz quotes American diplomat, historian and political scientist George Kennan, a Cold War architect and the intellectual father of America’s containment policy: "I think this is a tragic mistake. There was no reason for this whatsoever. No one was threatening anybody else. Of course, there is going to be a bad reaction from Russia, and then [the NATO expanders] will say that we always told you that is how the Russians are ˗ but this is just wrong." Frau Krone-Schmaltz believes that it was Western provocative policy that prompted Russia’s special military operation, as it crossed all the "red lines" and turned Ukraine into a dangerous foothold.
Naturally, the German authorities and media, being hung up about Russia’s threat to the democratic West and Ukraine’s fight for both its own freedom and the entire Western democracy," have appeared to be loathing "dissent" of this kind. That's why they seek to suppress Professor Krone-Schmaltz, turning her into a villain with no right of public speeches. Meanwhile, ordinary Germans are to be drowned in the official narrative encouraged by "green" Foreign Minister Frau Baerbock with her calls to defeat Russia on the battlefield. She must be thinking this could be achieved with Leopard tanks that made it into modern history despite having been assembled well ahead of the WWII Wehrmacht or wearing Nazi crosses. Is there anyone who would help her apprehend the lyrics by Vladimir Vysotsky: "They don't even need the crosses on graves with crosses on wings being quite well enough!" Those on tank turrets will do, either.
