Angela Merkel said that Poland and the Baltic states blocked EU talks with Vladimir Putin before the war in Ukraine. She received harsh criticism from these countries after the statements, support from Moscow.
Although she is no longer active in politics, her words are listened to carefully. Especially when it comes to the background of the Russian attack on Ukraine in February 2022. Angela Merkel, who was German Chancellor until December 2021, significantly shaped European policy towards Russia, writes DW.
In an interview with Hungarian media outlet Partizan, Merkel spoke about the period before the war and the time when the coronavirus made contact with Vladimir Putin difficult. She also spoke about how she, as chancellor at the time, initiated talks between the EU and Russia in June 2021 with the aim of stabilizing the fragile ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia: “So that we, as the European Union, can talk directly to Putin.”
“Some did not support it. These were mainly the Baltic states, but Poland was also against it, because they were afraid that we would not have a common policy towards Russia,” Merkel said. The attempt failed, she added. “Then I left office and then Putin’s aggression began,” the former chancellor said.
Harsh criticism from Poland and the Baltic states
Angela Merkel's statements about the circumstances of the war have sparked a wave of criticism in the countries concerned. "It's not just controversial. It's scandalous. Because she's essentially accusing us of enabling the invasion," said Andris Pabriks, Latvia's defense minister from 2019 to 2022. "She's turning things upside down and can't admit her mistakes, which have actually cost a lot," he told DW.
Mateusz Morawiecki, who was prime minister of Poland's right-wing conservative government in 2021, wrote in X that Angela Merkel "had proven with her ill-considered interview that she is among the German politicians who have caused the greatest damage to Europe in the last century."
Criticism of the former German chancellor's statements has also come from the current liberal Polish government. The claim that someone did not sit down at the negotiating table with Russia at the right time is "absurd", because Russia is clearly the aggressor, Minister of Funds and Regional Policy Katarzyna Pełczyńska-Nałęcz told Polsat News. "These words are completely inappropriate today and they serve Russian propaganda," she added.
Support from Russia
Angela Merkel’s statements have indeed attracted a lot of attention in Russia – and have been met with approval. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov commented: “One might think that Mrs. Merkel is right in this regard.” The European Union, he said, is “unfortunately hostage to the fanatical policies of the Baltic states and Warsaw” in matters of foreign policy. The Russian Duma said that Poland and the Baltic states are doing everything they can to “provoke” conflicts.
Pro-Kremlin political scientist Sergei Markov “celebrated” the moment of Angela Merkel’s statement with a post on his Telegram channel. “Merkel knows and understands that in Europe the trend of conflict with Russia has shifted towards the desire for peace with Russia,” Markov claimed.
What was the EU summit held in June 2021 about?
The proposal to hold an EU-Russia summit was a topic of discussion at the meeting of EU heads of state and government in June 2021. The initiative came from Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron. At the time, EU-Russia summits had not been held since 2014, when Russia annexed Crimea and supported separatists in eastern Ukraine.
In early 2021, the situation in eastern Ukraine deteriorated. The number of ceasefire violations in Donbass increased again. The implementation of the Minsk agreements to resolve the conflict from 2014 and 2015 had long been stalled.
On the other hand, contacts between the West and Russia were renewed. The then US President, Biden, met with Vladimir Putin at a summit in Switzerland in mid-June 2021. A little later, Putin, in an article in the German weekly “Die Zeit”, supported “the renewal of a comprehensive partnership with Europe”.
Merkel and Macron's proposal to hold an EU summit with Putin received support from Italy and Austria, among others. However, it was criticized by Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.
The Netherlands was also skeptical. Latvian Prime Minister Krisjanis Kariņš said afterward that the impression of "rewarding" Putin with a summit without a preliminary solution to the situation in eastern Ukraine should be avoided.
Nord Stream 2 undermined trust in Germany
At the same time, a German-Russian project was being implemented that was a thorn in the side of Eastern European EU members and Ukraine itself: the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which was supposed to directly connect Russia and Germany.
In early June 2021, Vladimir Putin confirmed progress in the construction of the gas pipeline. Poland and the Baltic states insisted on the “closing” of the project.
Nord Stream 2 permanently damaged relations, recalls Pabriks, then Latvia’s defense minister: “We warned against this dependence on Russia as a geostrategic mistake. At the same time, Merkel personally claimed that Nord Stream 2 was a purely economic issue and had nothing to do with politics.”
With the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, differences of opinion within the EU initially faded into the background. Nord Stream was permanently damaged by the explosions in September 2022. Angela Merkel seems to have understood this: “Today we will no longer be able to explain what would have happened if… and if times had changed,” she said in an interview with the Hungarian newspaper Partizan./ DW
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