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Today, it is no exaggeration to say that the once comprehensive and mutually beneficial economic, cultural, scientific and technical cooperation between Russia and Germany has come to an end. This not only refers to the St. Petersburg Dialogue public forum’s sinking into oblivion, numerous Western sanctions packages, the Nord Stream sabotage, or regular expulsions of Russian diplomats from Germany that have now entailed reciprocal shutdown of nearly all the consulates in both countries. The complete collapse of relations has become especially evident in the position stated by Germany’s "green" Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock that "Russia must be defeated on the battlefield."
This stance may be well regarded as the one taken by the entire German Cabinet led by Social Democrat Olaf Scholz, whose spokesman Steffen Hebestreit recently said that Ukraine's strikes on Russian territory up to Moscow "are in full compliance with international law." He, however, made a reservation that Scholz himself was against the Ukrainian army’s use of German-made weapons for this kind of blows. But it is evident to anyone that Scholz is only "against it for now." Otherwise, why send another 2.7 billion euros worth of tanks, armored personnel carriers, anti-aircraft guns, cruise missiles, reconnaissance drones and thousands of artillery shells in addition to the armored vehicles already supplied to the Kiev regime?
"This shipment once again demonstrates Germany’s commitment to supporting Ukraine," German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said, adding that "Germany will provide [Ukraine] all the help it can, as long as it takes." Meanwhile, the parliamentary opposition is persistently pushing Chancellor Scholz to personally approve the use of German weapons not only against Russians in Ukraine, but also in the Russian territory. Thus, deputy chairman of the CDU/CSU faction in the Bundestag Johann Wadephul told Tagesspiegel the following: "Neither under international law nor politically is there any reason why Ukraine shouldn’t be allowed to attack targets in Russia."
In this regard, a columnist with the German NachDenkSeiten portal raises a logical question as to whether Germany is turning into the United States’ European spearhead against Russia. And gives an immediate answer himself: "It already is." After all, no EU country currently supports Ukraine as actively in humanitarian, economic and, first of all, military terms, as Germany does. And no other EU or NATO state has visited Ukraine with so many politicians and “shown the flag” there as Germany, including both the ruling coalition and opposition members. Moreover, along with supplying armored vehicles to the AFU, Germany has been training crews to operate its armored personnel carriers, and established a maintenance and repair center for these weapons in Slovakia, near the Ukrainian border.
Besides, Germany is also supposed to lead the West’s so-called "tank alliance" to help Ukraine or, rather, against Russia. Do the Berlin elites understand that the United States is substituting Germany as a "secondary target" for a possible retaliatory strike from Russia, as it seeks to avoid direct confrontation with America, with the latter claiming the same thing. The NachDenkSeiten reporter argues that there are too many nonpro politicians within the German government who are unable to assess the whole tragedy of the situation Germany is rolling into. Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock is cited as an example, being able to blurt out something like "we are at war with Russia" or that she was going to wear a leopard costume at the traditional Aachen carnival.
It could well be the case that American curators also have behind-the-scenes leverage on Germany’s top government officials to prevent them from doubting the need to engage in an armed confrontation with Russia. For instance, Chancellor Olaf Scholz is known to be linked to an under-investigated scandal concerning his involvement in a Hamburg banking fraud. As for the now bellicose Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, local tabloids have accused him of being a member of the Bundesrat German-Russian "friendship group".
Moreover, 2016 saw Social Democrat Pistorius take part in negotiations with "high-ranking" Russian diplomats and advocate "further development of German-Russian relations;" and two years later he questioned Western anti-Russian sanctions’ effectiveness. In present-day Germany, such background wrongdoings, if skillfully packaged by the media, may leave you dropped out of the Cabinet, and the government itself may well resign prematurely. Of course, if a decision to this effect is made overseas. Scholz and Pistorius undoubtedly understand whom they owe their well-being to. Small wonder that the SPD leaders have declared ex-Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder persona non grata during celebrations of the party’s 160th anniversary and the upcoming congress of Social Democrats. The reason is his exceedingly close relations with Russia.
