Wolfgang Ischinger
Photo:Gene Glover / DER SPIEGEL
Ischinger, 74, is one of the most experienced German diplomats. He was State Secretary in the Foreign Office, Ambassador to Washington and London. Since 2008 he has headed the Munich Security Conference, Germany's most important foreign and security policy conference.
SPIEGEL: Mr Ischinger, a few minutes' walk from your office in Berlin's Charité, Putin critic Alexej Navalny is in a coma after he was allegedly poisoned in his home country of Russia. How does the Navalny case affect German-Russian relations?
Ischinger: We are experiencing a new low, unfortunately. In Moscow people make fun of the victim. For that reason alone, this is an unspeakably embarrassing process for the Kremlin. Russia's credibility was already shaken by the poison attack on Sergej Skripal in Great Britain, the murder of a Chechen exile in Berlin's Tiergarten and the hacking attack on the Bundestag. It should now be finally done. Chancellor Angela Merkel has shown patience with President Vladimir Putin over the past 15 years. As an OSCE mediator in Ukraine in 2014, I witnessed how she was the only head of government to talk to Putin on the phone over and over again, sometimes several times a week. It has long been clear what the word from Moscow is worth. There the law of the strongest applies. That is the end, unfortunately, also for the idea of strategic partnership.
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