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Also wants to order the Sputnik vaccine for Bavaria: Markus Söder
Photo: via www.imago-images.de / imago images / Political-Moments
Markus Söder once again showed everyone what a rake is and signed a preliminary contract for 2.5 million doses of the Russian Sputnik vaccine.
The state government of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania promptly announced that it had secured an option for one million vaccine doses.
According to press reports, Brandenburg is also applying for the material.
They all rely on a vaccine that has not yet been approved by the EU Medicines Agency and for which there is ongoing criticism of a lack of transparency and incomplete information on the degree of effectiveness and potential risks.
To the author
Photo:
Robert Schlesinger / picture alliance
Ralf Fücks,
born in 1951, is the director of the Berlin think tank Center for Liberal Modernism.
He was federal chairman of the Greens, Senator in Bremen and chairman of the Heinrich Böll Foundation, which is closely related to the Greens.
While the AstraZeneca preparation was temporarily put on hold due to extremely rare complications, there are no corresponding data for the Russian vaccine.
Sputnik V was presented with great fanfare last summer as the winner in the race for a Covid-19 vaccine, even before clinical studies were completed.
And the number of studies is still very thin.
Buying a pig in a poke would be justified if we had to reckon with a shortage of proven vaccines in the future.
But this is not the case.
After the initial breakdowns and start-up difficulties, deliveries are now ramping up.
In addition to Biontech / Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson is now also delivering to Europe, and Curevac is about to be approved.
As of March 18, 261 million vaccine doses have been promised for the Federal Republic within the framework of EU procurement;
there are also options for a further 70 million based on national agreements with Biontech / Pfizer and Curevac.
So there is no urgent need for Sputnik V;
In addition, the announced delivery quantities are not significant in terms of numbers.
The Russian vaccine is by no means available in abundance - at the beginning of April only 3.1 percent of the population in Germany had been vaccinated twice, in Germany 5.2 percent.
For the Kremlin, export has priority, accompanied by propaganda fireworks on all channels: Look here, the rescue comes from Moscow!
Sputnik V is not a non-political vaccine, but a prestige project of the Russian leadership.
Why is Söder pushing ahead anyway?
The Sputnik deal is above all a political coup: Söder shows lazy Berlin once again how robust crisis management works.
At the same time he presents himself as a détente politician with good relations with Moscow.
Partnership with Russia, who wouldn't want that?
The only fatal thing is that the advocates of closer cooperation completely ignore the real politics of the Kremlin.
While the Sputnik agreements are being celebrated as proof of political vigor, Putin is deploying combat troops and heavy weapons on the borders of Ukraine.
Columns of tanks roll in the direction of Ukraine, Russian gunboats and landing ships take up position off the Ukrainian Black Sea coast, nuclear-weapon-capable »Iskander« missiles are being relocated from the Urals to the border region.
Putin's press spokesman Peskov announced that Russian citizens would be defended in Donbass.
State television threatens that a war with Russia would be the end of Ukraine.
Dmitri Kosak, the Kremlin's representative for Ukraine, whispers about a "new Srebrenica" that Russia will prevent.
The arsonist plays the fire brigade - it couldn't be more cunning.
The Kremlin is not a partner but an opponent of democratic Europe
What rides a prime minister with federal political ambitions to proclaim the German-Russian vaccination partnership in this situation?
The fact that Alexei Navalny, Putin's most prominent critic, is being ruined in the penal camp does not play a role for the Sputnik supporters.
One regrets and goes back to business.
All of this is fatally reminiscent of Nord Stream 2. The contracts for this project were signed when Putin had just annexed Crimea and started the war in eastern Ukraine.
Even then, that sent the wrong signal to the Kremlin: You can do what you want - we will ensure that the ruble keeps rolling and we extend our hand to your geopolitical ambitions.
Even then, the illusion of "change through rapprochement" was sought.
Since then, internal repression and aggressive external policy have only become sharper: bombing war in Syria, creeping annexation of the Donbass, assassinations against opposition members, growing pressure on civil society in Russia, hacker attacks on the German Bundestag, large-scale disinformation and propaganda Russian state media and internet trolls - the list could go on and on.
We still pretend that Putin and Co. can be appeased by money and good words instead of facing the facts: The Kremlin is not a partner but an opponent of democratic Europe, Moscow is the headquarters of the anti-liberal International.
We must contain the systemic conflict with Russia, but should refrain from anything that strengthens the current regime.
It does not follow from this that all bridges must be broken.
Diplomacy is the art of moderating conflicting interests.
At the same time, cooperation with Russian civil society, cultural exchange and support for the democratic forces in the country are more urgent than ever.
Russia is and will remain an important trading partner.
But you have to know who we are dealing with in the Kremlin, and we should be careful not to send the wrong signals.
In a situation in which the Russian leadership threatens a military escalation against Ukraine, there must be a clear message from the West: this far and no further.
Putin speculates that he can always go one step further and at the same time find enough partners in Europe who want to do financial and political business with Russia.
We should not pursue this calculation any further.
The Sputnik deal sends the wrong signal at the wrong time.