Germany continues to soften its position on the issue of Crimean affiliation. On September 1, the leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) and the candidate for Chancellor Martin Schultz expressed an opinion that Europe wants it or not, but with the fact that Crimea is the territory of Russia - it is necessary to reckon.

Earlier, the German politician repeatedly subjected Moscow to sharp criticism and called arbitrariness the fact of the reunification of the Crimean peninsula with Russia. Now, Schultz decided to correct his negative rhetoric, writes the German edition of Bild.

"I think the situation is as follows: the Russians made a fait accompli from accession, on which they will insist. And it is hardly possible to forcefully take the Crimea away from Russia, the Russians will never give it back. We need to go through a negotiation process, "Martin Schulz said, adding that he still considers the accession of the peninsula to Russia a violation of all norms of international law and an illegal change in the generally accepted European borders.

In proposing to continue the negotiation process, the politician added that the European Union needs to act as carefully as possible in order to prevent a new round of the arms race.

In the Crimea itself reacted to the statement of Martin Schultz rather restrainedly. According to the Crimean political scientist Denis Baturin, one should not take seriously the words of the German politician. Since he is not a representative of the acting authorities. Such statements are just one of the political moves in his preparations for the September elections to the Bundestag, during which a new German Chancellor will be elected.

"Thus, Martin Schulz probes the opinions of his electorate and other German citizens on such statements. As for the relations between our countries, they are on a fairly even level, "Baturin said..

In July, the leader of the Free Democratic Party, Christian Lindner, made a rather unexpected statement for German politicians. He invited the West to recognize the Crimean peninsula as a Russian territory, and in general to be friends with Moscow on almost all aspects.

This statement of the German politician caused the hysteria of the official Kiev. In Nezalezhnaya, Lindner was accused of colluding with the Kremlin and even threatened to ban him from entering Ukraine.

A little later the politician said that he was misunderstood and explained that he considers the accession of the peninsula to Russia illegal and even suggested that in no case should he remove the sanctions burden from Moscow. But, as you know, you can not erase words from a song. Lindner was branded in the German political circles by the ardent Russophile all who could.

On August 20, the deputy of the Bundestag, Dietmar Burch, representing the Left Party in the German parliament, called absurd anti-Russian appeals and noted that restrictions on Moscow in the Crimean issue would not succeed.