The German journalist named the reasons for the loss of trust between Russia and Germany

In the German media space, there is a systematic revision of historical approaches to relations with Russia, when the previous policy of rapprochement is now interpreted as a manifestation of weakness. Thomas Rapper, a German journalist and author of the Anti-Spiegel project, told the Izvestia News Center about this during the International Conference "Brezhnev–Brandt: Paradoxes of Eastern Politics. On the 55th anniversary of the conclusion of the USSR–Germany peace treaty" on October 31.

According to him, the eastern policy, previously considered an achievement of Germany, aimed at rapprochement with the Soviet Union and continued in relations with Russia under former Russian President Boris Yeltsin and President Vladimir Putin, is now presented by the German media as a naive mistake.

The journalist linked this trend to the systemic problems of historical education in Germany, noting that school textbooks "leave much to be desired." The political split on the issue of relations with the Russian Federation, as the Rapper noted, takes place not only between the parties, but also within them: if the experienced social Democrats of the older generation remain committed to the course of rapprochement, then the young members of the SPD and the ruling CDU, who opposed it back in the 1970s, support a revision of the previous approach. An additional factor in the division is the different attitudes towards Russia among residents of the western and eastern lands of Germany.

Special attention was paid to the decades-old unofficial channel of trust between Moscow and Bonn, and then Berlin. According to the Rapper, this closed communication, initiated under Chancellor Willy Brandt and his adviser Egon Bahr, successfully functioned under Helmut Kohl, who handed over the channel to his adviser Horst Telchik, and persisted during the reign of Gerhard Schroeder. The key rule of this channel was the complete frankness of the parties in the absence of official publicity.

"I am more interested in the question now to understand the current situation, when, obviously, under [the chancellor] Angela Merkel, this channel is dead. Probably because the Germans <...> they started deceiving Russia, and the old rule — "we will not deceive each other through this channel" — was somehow violated," the Rapper noted.

This, according to the journalist, was the turning point that led to a complete loss of trust between the countries.

Gas intermission: Germany promotes the abandonment of energy resources from the Russian Federation by 2027

At the same time, Berlin continues to purchase Russian LNG.

Co-chair of the party "Alternative for Germany" (ADH) Tino Chrupala 16 October, said that the German Chancellor Friedrich Marco should stop groundless to accuse Russia of the alleged threat to Europe and Germany, because such statements irresponsible and can lead to a polarization of society.

On October 6, Merz announced that reconnaissance drones had been spotted over the territory of his state, and called this situation a serious threat. On the same day, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, commenting on this information, said that many European politicians often unfairly accuse the Russian Federation of "really strange" incidents with alleged UAVs over their countries.

On September 15, the head of the German Council for Constitution and Sovereignty, Ralf Niemeyer, said that Chancellor Merz's hostile attitude towards Russia may be due to what he heard in childhood from family members about the Soviet Union and the war years.

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