The wrong signal to Moscow

It was not out of stubbornness that German foreign ministers of various stripes had avoided direct personal encounters with the Russian leadership since Vladimir Putin began the open war of predation against Ukraine. Rather, they wanted to leave no doubt that Germany is on the side of the victim of aggression and that they are in no way prepared to seek an understanding with Moscow over their heads.

The Putin regime should be isolated as best as possible internationally and visibly. Sanctions from the European Union, which has imposed a ban on the leadership clique, also serve this purpose.

If there are good reasons, then changing this policy is worth considering; otherwise you would actually be stubborn. But were there such reasons that prompted Johann Wadephul to meet with Sergei Lavrov in New York and shake his hand? Nothing can be gleaned from what the German Foreign Minister said about this. There is no talk of any positive results, no willingness to negotiate, not even concessions similar to the earlier grain deal brokered by Turkey. Only Lavrov got something: shaken hand photos and the opportunity to mock Germany's chief diplomat.

Donald Trump has chosen a different path than the federal government has taken so far. He is not afraid of contact with Putin and for a moment, which fortunately passed, seemed to be handing Ukraine to the Kremlin ruler on a silver platter. Now he has invited him to the G-20 summit. But the erratic US president really can't be a role model. And a meeting without consequences doesn't take the initiative away from him.

Wadephul argued that we had to talk to each other at “some point in time”. But now, of all times, when Moscow has been correctly named as the perpetrator of dangerous attempted attacks? This isn't just any time, it's the wrong time.

Or was there something else? Yes, the state elections in East Germany, in which extreme parties were able to score points with Ostalgie and alleged peace policies. You won't outdo them with a maneuver like that. On the contrary, they will see this as an admission of how right they have always been.