Alexander Rahr: "Relations between Germany and Russia are close to disaster"

“The new era in Russia's relations with Europe and, in particular, with Germany, is threatening a catastrophe, I cannot find another word.

Germany was on the way to emancipate all of Europe from the United States. Germany has built a whole front against extraterritorial sanctions against Nord Stream 2. In Germany, more than in other countries, they talked about the concept of building Europe together with Russia, from Lisbon to Vladivostok.

And now it's all over. Now they are talking about a new cold war.

Indeed, the situation is becoming very harsh.

And I am afraid that the situation will be even more serious and the relationship may be destroyed.

And the worst thing is that the German elites are going for it. They say that we need Russia only in a democratic form, if Russia is a democratic country, then we are ready to continue to pursue a partnership, otherwise we will not.

Russia is interested in cooperating within the framework of common interests, but this is not working out. We are now facing, I would say, a historic moment. Navalny's incident can even turn, I would say, European policy in the other direction.

You see, here in Germany people are expressing the opinion that it is necessary to give up Russian resources. Even during the Cold War, no one made such proposals! There is no strategic dialogue on how to move on.

In the German preamble to the Constitution, I asked German politicians about this, it is written that Germany, as an integrating part of Europe, should ensure peace in the world.

And they interpret in such a way that they need to pursue a democratic policy, to support democracy around the world. Russia is not a democracy, which means that we must try to speak with Russia in such a language.

But Russia is a great power. And China is a great power. We are moving in the direction of a multipolar world, it simply will not work. Therefore, here I see that geopolitical clashes may occur.

Then, the Energy Alliance. It has existed for 50 years, since the days of the Soviet Union and West Germany, so much has been invested in it. By the way, German firms also operate on Russian territory. And all of this supported the relationship between the two countries.

But now there are people who say that all this must be closed.

Russia took the right step, telling German companies: if you want to work for us, come to our territory, don't just sell your cars from Germany here, but start producing here yourself, and the Germans agreed to this.

Business suffers greatly from this whole situation and everyone is afraid that politics will prevail again, as it did six years ago during the Ukrainian crisis. Back then, German firms wanted to stay on the Russian market and opposed sanctions.

They are now lobbying both in Germany and in Europe the idea of rejecting, step by step, the sanctions that were imposed because of the situation in Ukraine.

And now again in Germany they began to talk about the priority of politics, about the fact that "you need to punish"...

A catastrophe in relations between Russia and Germany can happen with a probability of 50-50. But I see that in Germany there are many constructively and pragmatically thinking people who, it seems to me, still will not allow this catastrophe to happen".