Member of the Bundestag from the now opposition Christian Democratic Union Roderich Kizewetter called for an investigation into the reasons for Germany's energy dependence on Russia. Two ex-chancellors fell under the hot hand of the prosecutor at once - Gerhard Schroeder, the Social Democratic Sancho Panza Putin, and, more interestingly, Angela Merkel, the ex-chief of Kizewetter, who only recently began to give interviews after her resignation.. Obviously, the abolition of Merkel's politically correct self-censorship also launched the process of removing taboos from comments about her..

At the same time, Kiesewetter's affront suggests that, for all their pronounced political antagonism, Schroeder and Merkel, as chancellor, were similar in one thing - a stubborn desire to build bridges, or rather, to lay pipes, with Putin. Albeit for different reasons.

cruel bromance.

The caricature relationship of two elderly machos, one of whom loves to ride with a naked torso, and the second, if necessary, is ready to replace the horse, has long become a byword. All these hot baths, football disputes over beer, Russian troikas through a snowstorm, anniversaries in St. Petersburg are attributes of a real bromance, which under other circumstances could even be made into a cute sitcom.

A “consistent Marxist” from the lower classes, who did not know his own father (Ober-Corporal of the Wehrmacht Fritz Schroeder died before he could see his son), but who knew firsthand the post-war poverty, the Social Democrat Gerhard Schroeder in 1998 reached the top of the political path and headed the German.

By that time, post-Soviet Russia was already present on the political and mental maps of Germany, and warm relations had even developed between Schroeder's predecessor Helmut Kohl and Boris Yeltsin, who was approaching a sacramental awareness of his fatigue.. Schroeder, however, was not very interested in the " He did not keep himself waiting - quietly crawled out from under the New Year's table, was short and clear, seemed energetic and practical, spoke German, and even had the background of St. Petersburg gateways behind him - in general, he rhymed with the poor youth of Schroeder himself.

The rapprochement was facilitated by another exacerbation of Germany's chronic disease - with the outbreak of the war in Iraq, irrational anti-Americanism once again struck the rational Federal Republic. The sentiments coincided: after eating Bush’s legs with an appetite and immediately hating them for humiliating a great nation with a gentleman’s sop, Russia just decided to stand on its own legs – or, in Putin’s words, to rise from its knees.

Not by Bush, of course, alone. The deposits of gas, oil, rare metals and other minerals randomly scattered across the vast Russian lands have long been of interest to Europe. Since the 1960s, oil has been flowing through nominal Druzhba, and Schroeder’s senior party members stubbornly believed in the principle of Wandel durch Handel (change through trade) for the entire second half of the 20th century - that is, they hoped to instill their highest values \u200b\u200bin the totalitarian USSR through a dialogue born of economic cooperation. Schroeder's expectations corresponded to reality, the changes in Russia were of little interest to him, and from trade he expected not magical transformations of his counterpart, but banal profit.

Putin was flattered by the interest of the German - and he hastened to signal that he was not against special conditions for German enterprises, that it was possible to negotiate with him, and in general: " Schroeder took the hint, accepted the paradigm, wrote off $7.1 billion to Russia. Soviet debts and went to Putin to celebrate Orthodox Christmas in the family circle. And at the same time laid the foundation for the suicidal dependence of the German economy on Russian energy resources.

German business, which received special conditions, was satisfied. The Berlin anti-Americanists did not hide their joy either - Moscow, of course, was not yet ready to become the new Washington, but Uncle Vova seemed to be ready to press Uncle Sam.

Rumors about the hypnotic and almost magical abilities of the President of Russia in their intensity can compete only with rumors about his own deadly diseases.. Both are reasonable doubts.. In the case of Schroeder, the love magic of the KGB school worked perfectly - the chancellor of a highly developed European democracy became blind in his love for the dictator of a backward Eurasian country.

The German press and human rights activists tried to point out to the unfortunate lover Schroeder the ambiguity of the object of his attraction - they blamed Chechnya, human rights, selective cleansing of oligarchs and other early Putin " But Schroeder preferred tempting agreements on Nord Stream to the terrifying news about Nord-Ost - and the first pipe along the bottom of the Baltic Sea was solemnly signed just at the end of his reign..

And 17 days after the end of the chancellor's service, Schroeder accepted an offer from his best friend Putin and headed the committee of shareholders of the company, which in the future will be called Nord Stream AG.

For Putin, it was only important that he had the ex-Chancellor of Germany on his salary and, accordingly, on errands. In addition, it has already become quite obvious that the Russian lobbyist from Schroeder is doing better than the German chancellor. It is likely that Putin also experienced some warm emotions for the German comrade - after all, this was his first serious trophy in Europe.. A trophy that confirmed that all these democracies and human rights are just a pretentious wrapper for a pragmatic business where bribery and simple psychological manipulations work.

Over time, Schroeder degenerated into a nobleman under Putin with a place of honor at the inaugurations of the owner between Patriarch Kirill and the court jester Medvedev. His presence on various boards of directors, observers, shareholders and other useless puppets has become almost symbolic.. The German newspaper Die Welt called Schroder the "

The payment for the maintenance of a personal German at the court was, by Kremlin standards, also almost symbolic - at the end of his presidential career, the former German politician received about a million dollars from all sinecures.

The degree of Schroeder's influence on Putin is evidenced by his diplomatic trip to Moscow in the spring of 2022, when the ex-chancellor armed himself with a white flag and went to the long Kremlin table to end the Russian war against Ukraine. The main result of the visit was a selfie of Schroeder's next wife in a hotel room overlooking the Kremlin.. The “closest friend” of the Russian leader could not achieve other successes.

Putin himself was carried away by the war with Ukraine and the energy war with Germany (the one, the likelihood of which Schroeder denied in alliance with all his numerous biographers), and he seemed to have completely forgotten about his friend Gerhard - and even he lost the remnants of his significance after February 24: the employees of the. The title of "

" And he willingly said that the image of Putin, known to the general public, is only half true..

And then for some reason he said that the events in Bucha should be investigated, and he does not believe in Putin's personal guilt there, one way or another - an order, they say, if such was given, then only at the lower levels.

And after these words, this pitiful person becomes absolutely not sorry.

Europe's locomotive running on Russian fuel.

In 2005, the textbook useful putinfersteer as chancellor was replaced by a personality of a completely different caliber and background. Raised in the GDR, the daughter of a pastor with a degree in nuclear physics and a Christian Democrat party card, Angela Merkel became the first East German and the first woman to head the Federal Government.

They say that in 2001, when Vladimir Putin spoke in the Bundestag and predicted a joint bright future for Europe and Russia to a storm of applause from German parliamentarians and those in power (Schroeder applauded the loudest, of course), Merkel said to a colleague on the sidelines: “This is said by a typical native of. Never trust this guy." Subsequently, Angela Merkel did not change her words.

The legendary meeting in Sochi in 2007, when Putin imperiously sprawled in his armchair, lowered his Labrador onto a German guest who was afraid of dogs, was marked not only and not so much by this cheap gopnik trick, but by a clearly defined conflict of worldviews. Then, even before the Munich speech, Putin exclusively shared with Merkel his unintelligent (and only) political idea - about the collapse of the USSR as “the main geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century”. Merkel disagreed, saying that the fall of the Berlin Wall, on the contrary, was a turning point in her life and in the life of Europe.. And this moment was happy.

They say she saw right through him - all his complexes under manipulation, his toilet machismo, his vulgarity and his desire to destroy the EU out of hatred for democracy, and at the same time, for some reason, for gays. Merkel never had any illusions that economic rapprochement could change Russia or the notorious gopnik on her throne. She did not set such a goal for herself - she was worried about something else..

Russia, one way or another, is critically close on the map and even closer if you count the time of the ballistic missiles' arrival. Russia is a threat, it is the world's second nuclear button, and perhaps the world's first audacity to press it. It was not possible to build a world with this bastard anachronism of the Cold War era. That is why Merkel chose to build a system of interconnections and interdependencies that would replace an effective security architecture and prevent Putin and his flock of street labradors from attacking what she sincerely loves and values \u200b\u200b- a peaceful and united Germany..

Under Merkel, the Nord Stream approved by her predecessor was built, and it was under her that the locomotive of Europe moved briskly on Russian fuel in an unknown direction, as it turned out later.. She spoke beautifully about European interests - the locomotive dragged EU cars of varying degrees of comfort along with it - but, of course, she pursued German interests in the first place.. She was betting that it would be unprofitable for Putin himself to get weapons from a Soviet holster, while the gas flow in one direction generates a cash flow in the opposite direction.. However, like her predecessor, she allegedly ignored the fact that the Russian gas pipeline is an energy weapon.. And deliberately handed over to Putin, whose simple firmware I read “at a time”, triggers.

The global conjuncture of German independence also did not contribute to. Even before 2011, Merkel was a supporter of nuclear energy and was going to reconsider Schroeder's decision to abandon Germany from nuclear power plants. For her, as a nuclear physicist, a peaceful atom was an obvious boon - it also allowed her to have a certain energy sovereignty. But Fukushima changed everything. The political tsunami in Germany that followed the accident in Japan almost swept Merkel out of office, and after the first victories of the Greens at the regional level, Madam Chancellor hastened to make visionary changes to the German future. Nuclear physicist Merkel has decided to completely abandon Germany's nuclear power industry by the end of 2022 and has taken an active interest in renewable sources..

To show interest, however, is not to build wind farms in Bavaria. And therefore, under the noisy discussion of solar panels, hydrogen and other technologies of the future, German gas dependence on Russia grew calmly and systematically: 39% in 2011 by February 2022 turned into 55%. An ominous quorum was reached - Putin could attack Ukraine.

But in 2011, Merkel's thoughts were occupied with something else - the German locomotive was picking up speed.. The comfort of the trip in the whole composition increased along with its global popularity.. The carrier's immodest fare — it was Germany that received the greatest profit from European economic cooperation, supplied by Russian energy — was considered a fair price for the right to travel not in the socialist camp's reserved seat, but in a cozy EU sleeping car. Question: \? "

As it turned out, the German bright future did not take into account the interests of either neighbors with different rail widths, or even their European fellow travelers, who were concerned about the driver's adultery with terrorists.. \? They always do this,” asked countries that knew Russia better.. “It seems to us that we are gaining a record speed,” German industrialists answered from the locomotive furnace and turned to Merkel with a request to give more Russian fuel.

She exhaled, picked up the cold intonations due to the occasion and called the number that Macron had not yet managed to occupy.. Vladimir answered the phone. Some argue that even with respect, and not on the way to the hockey game.

2014 - Crimea, Donbass, Malaysian Boeing, Normandy, Minsk. 2015 - Nord Stream-2. At the call of the same German industry, which craved natural gas cheaply and in abundance, and not LNG and at market prices. And following his vision - Putin, they say, will be disarmed by profit.

The voices of European partners and Ukrainians running after the German locomotive in the hope of escaping from the approaching Russian tanks were amplified. Unwillingness to hear them - too.

After almost silently swallowing Crimea and frozen by the impossible “Minsk” Donbass, Putin grew bolder. And he began to periodically release those same Labradors - either he will set hackers on the Bundestag, or he will shoot a political refugee in broad daylight in the center of Berlin. He humiliated, but she endured - and believed, albeit less towards the end, that economic sanity would win. Merkel read in Putin both his vulnerable complexion and his aggressive manipulativeness, she scorned his lies where others hung their ears, but she seemed not to understand the main thing - he cannot be stopped with handouts, he can only be beaten off. His dogs need their own dogs, his barking needs his own barking, in response to his rudeness, you need to beat him in the face.

Instead, with maniacal persistence, she supplied him with what he then deployed against Europe..

" Therefore, I do not see the need to say now: it was wrong, and I am not going to apologize either,” Angela Merkel said in her first interview with Der Spiegel since her resignation in June.

And with this arrogant self-confidence she reminded her predecessor.

Recent historical liability.

Germany is kicked in the right place and out of place with its historical responsibility for the Second World War. Of course, Russia was most willing to swing the whip of an appeal to conscience, but many other countries were in a hurry to saddle the guilt complex in their own interests.. With varying degrees of success.

Fortunately, the " Lost relevance and " Politicians, of course, will be engaged in competitive historiography, but, frankly, it would be better if they gave way to its specialists, who are guided by the spirit of science and humanism..

Moreover, there is a newer responsibility - the responsibility of the 21st century, to which both Schroeder and Merkel had a hand.. And if the vile corruption of the first is now finally receiving its well-deserved retribution from society and history, then the complexity of the position of the second requires a much more substantive dialogue.

If Mrs. Merkel was guided simply by German profits, let her find the courage to say so.. If she was led by her belief in the ability to build a security architecture out of gas pipelines, let her admit her mistake.. If we do not know something, we are ready to hear.

Apologies are likely to be really inappropriate. Like all official investigations, to which Kiesewetter's loud statement about the intent of two ex-chancellors can hardly lead.

But there's one thing that matters today.

Germany has long been the proud locomotive of Europe and was obliged to see from its position that ahead on the course - the abyss.

So, when a train goes downhill, the drivers can't just go out at the half-station for a smoke break and say that they suddenly don't want/are not ready/can't take on a leading role in Europe, but prefer to follow the others.. And do as the rest do.

You must be able to admit your mistakes, and most importantly, take responsibility for them and correct them..

Whether it's ex-Chancellor Angela Merkel in his reflections, or ex-Finance Minister and current Chancellor Olaf Scholz in his actions.

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