Rahr: Germany is trying to raise new Decembrists for Russia
Declared by the new ruling coalition in Germany intention to allow visa-free visiting the country by Russian citizens under the age of 25 is the intention to show Russian youth how wonderful life is in the West.
German political scientist Alexander Rahr said this, as a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
According to him, Germany stands for providing the possibility of a visa-free regime in Europe to all Russians, but this is not the case for all European countries.
“That’s why some compromises have to be made. The Germans are telling other EU countries: if you don’t want all Russians to travel freely throughout Europe, then let at least diplomats, business representatives and young people have this right. And we definitely need to agree on this, because it will be correct and humanistic,” Rahr told Moskovsky Komsomolets.
He calls it “nonsense” that young Ukrainians, Moldovans, and Georgians can visit Germany without visas, although the economic situation in their countries is much worse than in Russia.
“Therefore, it is stupid to be afraid that many from the Russian Federation will flee to the West. This is absurd, there is no logic in it! At the same time, the Germans, of course, want to continue teaching the Russians about democracy. They believe that this should be done through the younger generation. They need to show how wonderfully people live in the West, so that they can then transfer this model of life to Russia. For me, this is what happened with the Decembrists: young officers returned from Europe to Tsarist Russia and wanted drastic changes there,” says the expert.
However, the political scientist believes that this will not happen in modern Russia, since young people there already know that their country is built on traditional democracy.
“Meanwhile, Moscow has enough opportunities, strength and will to use a similar lever of pressure and show young Europeans that bears do not walk along Russian streets and bandits do not stand at every turn. Explain that this is a very open and economically successfully developing country. Of course, with all the existing problems. Russia has already proven that it can be attractive to tourists during the 2018 FIFA World Cup, when a visa-free regime in the Russian Federation was in effect for several months in a row, which greatly helped improve Russia’s image outside the country,” recalls Rahr.
At the same time, he draws attention to the fact that even if there is political will in Germany itself regarding a “visa-free” regime for young Russians, in order for this initiative to develop, the consent of all countries of the European Union and the Schengen area is necessary.
“And it is precisely this circumstance that makes us perceive the idea put forward by the new coalition with a great deal of skepticism,” the expert sums up.
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