Angela Merkel has admitted she lost influence over Vladimir Putin in the final stages of her term as the Russian president knew the then-German chancellor was leaving and would not seek re-election. “I don’t have the energy to carry my ideas forward, because everyone knows: She will leave in the fall“, the former German leader said in an interview Der SpiegelQuoted Guardian🇧🇷
“If I had continued in September, I would have continued to press, but at my final meeting in Moscow, the feeling was clear: from the point of view of political power, it’s over. Power is all that matters to Putin,” Angela Merkel said. The ex-chancellor thinks he managed.
Incidentally, Merkel considered the criticism that she had paid little attention to Ukraine when she annexed Crimea between 2013 and 2014 unfair. ‘How can you take your eyes off Ukraine?’ But it’s very simple: we had elections [na Alemanha]There was always something going on in Greece at the time and I broke my hip.
In the final part of her mandate, Angela Merkel sought to promote a meeting between Vladimir Putin and Emmanuel Macron, the president of France. He sought to schedule a meeting between European leaders in the summer of 2021 after a meeting between the Russian president and his US counterpart, Joe Biden. But none of the initiatives worked, the former head of the German government assured.
“Some people resisted, and I didn’t have the strength to impose myself, because everyone knew that I would leave in the fall”, he said. Merkel is said to have questioned other European leaders as to why they are not negotiating with Putin. The answers? “One said: ‘It’s too big for me’🇧🇷 The other shrugged. ‘That’s what adults are supposed to do’“, he quotes Deutsche Welle🇧🇷