, Columnist
Germany’s President Embodies the Past Sins of Its Russia Policy
Need an example for Germany’s disastrous policy toward the Kremlin? Frank-Walter Steinmeier is a good place to start.
Putin and Steinmeier, so simpatico.
Photographer: Kirill Kudryavtsev/AFP via Getty Images
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“J’accuse…!” This was the famous title of a withering public letter Emile Zola wrote in 1898 to the president of France. In it, the author accused the government, and by extension the whole country, of anti-Semitism.
“Ich klage an…!” This, in effect, would be the German version of Zola’s letter. Ukraine’s ambassador to Berlin hurled just such an indictment at Germany’s president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, and by extension the country’s entire political class.