How the Kremlin turns Navalny into a superstar
It was an emotional, brutal moment: security forces arrested Russian opposition politician Alexej Navalny in front of the cameras in Moscow before passport control - he was able to kiss his wife Julia goodbye for a short while, then he was gone.
It is not known where Navalny is now; his lawyer was not allowed to accompany him.
Actually, there is no longer any need to prove that Vladimir Putin fears this man, whose name he never utters on principle.
Otherwise, why would a team from the domestic intelligence service FSB have tried to kill Alexei Navalny with poison?
You don't do that with people who are unimportant or who “nobody needs,” to put it in Putin's words.
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Navalny on the plane to Moscow
Photo: Mstyslav Chernov / AP
Yesterday, the Kremlin showed how afraid the regime is of the opposition:
the security forces first used force against Navalny's supporters who were waiting for him at Moscow's Vnukovo airport.
Then the airport was suddenly closed, allegedly because of a defective snow plow, and the flight was diverted to another Moscow airport: to Sheremetyevo.
Do you really have an airport closed for someone who supposedly doesn't matter?
For the time being, Navalny is probably in the hands of the FSB - the people who tried to kill him.
First the poison attack, then the threats of Navalny's return, the closure of an entire airport and finally the arrest: the Kremlin reacts in panic to the man who is supposedly so insignificant.
Putin is now in the process of building Navalny into an oversized opposition figure with his overreaction
and making him much more important than he ever was before.
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Police arrest a Navalny supporter at Vnukovo Airport
Photo: NATALIA KOLESNIKOVA / AFP
Navalny's courage and the courage of his wife Julia are remarkable
: they could have chosen a comfortable life in exile - now weeks, months or years in prison could wait for him.
It is clear that Europe and the German federal government must react to the illegal arrest of Nawalny
- with diplomatic protest notes, but above all with deeds: the only effective thing is sanctions directly against Putin's closest circle.
The arrest of Alexei Navalny: Who's afraid of whom?
Friedrich Merz's hubris problem
When I recently didn't win the million in the lottery, I called the lottery company: I kindly offered to be satisfied with 100,000 euros.
This is of course not true, but as an idea it is just as absurd as the "offer" that Friedrich Merz, who lost in the race for the CDU party chairmanship, made to the new party leader Armin Laschet: He "offered" Laschet to become Federal Minister of Economics, Merz said after his defeat.
(By the way, greetings at this point to Peter Altmaier.)
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Merz
Photo: POOL / REUTERS
Anyone who thought that Merz saw his failure in the CDU after the third defeat (first against Merkel, then against AKK, now against Laschet) was wrong.
With this "that's up to me" attitude Merz only confirms that he does not seem suitable for a high state office:
After all, a ministerial office is not an annual bonus as we know it from the world of finance, but a service to the citizens.
But hubris is obviously a powerful drug.
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Carnival participant Söder 2014
Photo: David-Wolfgang Ebener / dpa
Merz does not want to work collegially.
This unwillingness has consequences:
The wing battles in the CDU will continue even after the decision about the top job
- which does not make Laschet's task any easier.
He now has to "integrate" the bad loser and his supporters, which shows how big the centrifugal forces are in the party.
Laschet now urgently needs a good few months before the decision on the candidacy for chancellor is made - because otherwise Markus Söder could snatch the great price from under his nose.
New CDU boss Laschet and Merkel: In the danger zone
Laschet's advocacy for Assad and Putin
In the past few months, it has been extensively examined how
Armin Laschet
thinks about all sorts of things - but unfortunately the man who could become Germany's next Chancellor has been interviewed and tested primarily on domestic politics.
Laschet's foreign policy positions, however, were rarely discussed and questioned.
Which is a shame, because Germany is an important foreign policy player - but it often plays a secondary role in Berlin discussions.
At Armin Laschet in particular, it would have been worth taking a closer look.
In the past, his foreign policy positions differed significantly from those of Angela Merkel
, with whom he is so often compared.
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Campaigner Laschet at the CDU party conference
Photo: POOL / REUTERS
In the war in Syria, Laschet sided with the dictator Bashar al-Assad
, who had civilians bombed from the air, and in 2014 demanded a reassessment of his regime.
Laschet falsely accused the USA of supporting the "Islamic State" against Assad - in truth, the opposition groups supported by the USA were fighting against "IS".
But Laschet shared the regime's propaganda, which equated all opposition groups with "IS" - and shared on Twitter in 2018 the thesis spread by the Assad regime that "IS" was responsible for the chemical weapons attack on rebel-controlled Eastern Ghouta near Damascus and not the regime itself - although "IS" was never represented in Eastern Ghouta.
Laschet also wrote: "The only solution in Syria is with Russia".
So with Russia, which is supporting Assad in Syria and has been bombing civilians and hospitals for years.
Destroyed neighborhood in Aleppo in 2016
Photo: GEORGE OURFALIAN / AFP
Apart from Syria, Laschet has repeatedly indicated that he belongs to the faction of those who believe that the real problem is that they
simply do not talk enough
with Russia (although they
have been talking
to Russia incessantly for years).
He once complained about
"marketable anti-Putin populism,"
whatever that meant.
Laschet is also a defender of the "Nord Stream 2" gas pipeline, which Eastern European EU states are fighting massively because they see it as a geopolitical project of the Kremlin.
It is not surprising that Laschet was the first prominent CDU man to place doubts about the intelligence of the British - which later turned out to be true - that the ex-agent Sergej Skripal had been killed by Russian agents.
Laschet belongs to the ranks of those politicians who are more likely to be found in parts of the SPD or the Left Party than in the CDU - and if so, then mostly in the Eastern CDU:
gladly willing to defend Putin's regime against criticism in case of doubt
.
Knowing these positions of Laschet is very important for citizens: because they would represent a departure from Germany's previous foreign policy.
Does Laschet still think that way?
It is not just a shame, but downright negligent, that this was not discussed more publicly in the run-up to Armin Laschet's election.
But there is still enough time in the months before the decision on who should be candidate for chancellor.
Armin Laschet and the candidate for chancellor: the battle of his life
Corona vaccinated people: "Basic rights" or "privileges"?
SPD Foreign Minister Heiko Maas sparked an interesting discussion at a much too early stage:
Should people vaccinated against Corona get their "basic rights" back, as he demands - or are these "privileges" based on solidarity that promote a division in society?
The Federal Ministry of Health immediately rejected Maas' request: "As long as it is not clear whether a vaccinated person can transmit the virus, there can be no exceptions."
However, this was hardly the end of the debate, but rather its beginning - because a world in which vaccinated people have advantages over unvaccinated people is already emerging.
Be it when traveling by air or crossing borders, the vaccination card could become a pass.
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Vaccination card with a note about the corona vaccination
Photo: Jens Büttner / dpa
On Tuesday, the Chancellor wants to discuss with the Prime Minister a significant tightening of the previous lockdown
, as we reported last week - even a suspension of local and long-distance transport was part of the debate.
However, the number of infections and deaths has developed positively in the past few days
- it looks as if the measures imposed before Christmas are starting to take effect.
That could make the project more difficult to decide on a clear tightening.
However, the new mutations, which are spreading much faster, could soon cause the numbers to rise again - that's why the Chancellery wants tough measures.
In any case, the shutdown will probably be extended until mid-February
, as my colleagues report:
Federal and state governments against Corona: certainly longer, but how much tougher?
Loser of the day ...
... is
Gerhard Schröder
, head of the supervisory board of the state-controlled Russian oil company Rosneft.
The German ex-chancellor, who is known to be paid by the Russian state, always gives a sad picture when it comes to the Russian regime.
I therefore recommend that you read this SPIEGEL conversation with Schröder and the historian Gregor Schöllgen - it is a document: In it, Schröder says that he has never liked America, but that it is not anti-Americanism and calls for the dissolution of NATO.
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Schröder
Photo: Kay Nietfeld / dpa
As extensively as he criticizes the United States, he has as much unwavering understanding for the Russian regime, even if he now admits that it has "crossed borders."
Schröder does not want to say a critical word about Putin, his friend, who is also his financier.
It is bitter that a former German Chancellor - who at the time did something important for the country - is so obviously a paid lobbyist of a state that is unfriendly to Germany today.
Former Chancellor Schröder and historian Schöllgen settle accounts with the USA: "Trump only smashed what could not be saved anyway"
The latest news from the night
More than 80 dead in fighting in Darfur
: Conflicts broke out in Sudan after the violent death of an Arab man.
83 people have died so far and more than 150 have been injured.
The authorities imposed a curfew
Phil Spector is dead
: In the 1960s, Phil Spector revolutionized pop music and created world hits.
The music producer convicted of manslaughter spent the last years of his life behind bars.
An obituary
Superstar Mahomes injured, his backup saves the Chiefs in the conference finals
: In the NFL quarter-finals, Chiefs Superstar Patrick Mahomes injured his head and was not allowed to return to the game.
Instead, backup quarterback Chad Henne brought his team against the Browns over time
The SPIEGEL + recommendations for today
Joe Biden's fight against his predecessor's legacy: demon Trump and his exorcist
Historian Volker Reinhardt on the plague and corona: "Epidemics attract the evil forces"
Criticism of government rescue programs: The horror tale of the zombie companies
150 years after the founding of the empire: the German nation exists
Spasmodic saving: how do I finally spend more money?
I wish you a good start to the day.
Your Mathieu von Rohr
