Russia has the largest arsenal of nuclear weapons in the world.
And Russia's leadership is blatantly threatening to use these weapons when in doubt.
In this respect, the fear of a nuclear war is only too understandable and the attitude of politicians to try to prevent this at all costs is easy to understand.
But that's a political mistake, says Marina Weisband.
»If you are afraid of an opponent
withdraws from his demands, you don't make any deals, you let yourself be blackmailed," Weisband is convinced.
“This is a very fundamental truth that must be understood from Putin's worldview.
The man thinks and acts like a gangster and he wipes the floor with our belief in trade through change, in reciprocity, in any moral obligations'.
The expert for digital participation promotes new forms of democracy that should make politics more understandable and accessible for everyone.
She is a member of the Green Party, which was founded in part as a result of the anti-nuclear movement.
And she was born near Chernobyl, then still part of the Soviet Union.
Parts of her family still live in Ukraine.
In war.
"To clear up a misunderstanding: If Putin wanted to use nuclear weapons, he would have done so," she says. "The war has been going on for eight years.
Putin does not react.
I think that's what German politicians fundamentally don't understand, and neither does the German population.
He won't wait whether we send heavy weapons or not.
If he has the motivation to bomb Europe, then he will.
If he doesn't have that motivation, he won't do it even if we send heavy weapons."
»The goal of peace cannot always be achieved through peace«
The peace movement also had a significant influence on the founding of the first green party in Germany.
The Easter marches, which at the beginning of the 1980s were primarily directed against the contemporary arms race with nuclear weapons with the slogan »Creating peace without weapons«, have survived to this day.
But is it enough these days to simply be a pacifist?
Simply refuse all weapons, even in the face of such brutal aggression as the Russian invasion of Ukraine?
»The goal of peace cannot always be achieved through peace.
And that is not understood, because no distinction is made between aggressor and victim«, says Marina Weisband, »but the moment I deny power structures and am blind to them, I am always on the side of the aggressor.
There is no neutrality there.
Because if I'm neutral, then at that moment I'm supporting the aggressor.«
But how else should one meet Putin?
What are the real disadvantages if Russian fuels are embargoed?
And how do you ensure that industry, society and individuals support this decision?
Host Olaf Heuser talks about this with Marina Weisband in this episode of the foreign podcast »Eight Billion«.
Listen to this episode here:
