The German coalition remembered Russia six times, but forgot about Navalny
Improvements in relations between Moscow and Berlin are not expected, as evidenced by coalition agreement presented SPD, Union 90/Greens and FDP.
The head of the Center for German Studies at the Institute of Europe of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Vladislav Belov, said this, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“Russia is mentioned six times in the coalition agreement and in a rather restrained context. As far as I understand, the Social Democrats were able to contain the anti-Russian fervor of the “greens”. Therefore, the same Annalena Bärbock, as a possible head of the German Foreign Ministry, will in any case have to follow the general strategy towards the Russian Federation. It follows from the coalition agreement that no improvements are expected between the countries in the political sphere. In this direction, our relations are at the lowest point in the value-moral vector of German foreign policy. Therefore, even deterioration is possible,” Belov told Moskovsky Komsomolets.
He believes that it is quite possible that the work of the St. Petersburg Dialogue forum will not be restored, and other venues may also be frozen.
“All red lines from Crimea to civil society remain. At the same time, the coalition agreement, oddly enough, does not mention either Navalny, hacker threats, or hybrid wars... The tone is generally clear. However, it could have been worse,” says the expert.
He also adds that changes may be made to the coalition agreement after discussion within the parties.
“It is possible that the Greens may still add a fly in the ointment in the part that concerns Russia. By the way, our country is given the most space in the document - neither Ukraine nor Belarus, but several paragraphs are devoted to Russia,” notes the political scientist.
The specialist also draws attention to the fact that in any case, policy towards Russia in Germany will be determined not by the head of the foreign policy department (this position will go to the “greens”), but by the chancellor.
“At one time, acting German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas decided to blow the anti-Russian trumpet. He was quickly pulled back and corrected. And again, we must not forget the coalition agreement. This is not a piece of paper, but a serious document,” Belov summed up.
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