"Why I understand Putin despite everything!" - wrote Alice Schwarzer in 2014 about the Russian President

Created: 05/10/2022Updated: 05/10/2022 05:02

Alice Schwarzer (archive image) © Oliver Berg/dpa

Alice Schwarzer and the Ukraine war: Already in 2014, with Russia's annexation of Crimea, Alice Schwarzer made Putin-friendly tones.

Berlin - "Yes, Putin is undoubtedly an autocratic ruler.

After centuries of disenfranchisement in the Tsarist Empire and decades of tutelage in the Stalinist Empire, Russia does not yet seem ready for a democracy,” wrote Alice Schwarzer on her blog in 2014, shortly after Russia had annexed the Ukrainian Crimea.

However, this sentence remains one of the few sentences critical of Putin, in an essay that Schwarzer gave the title: "Why, despite everything, I understand Putin!"

In some points of her statements, Alice Schwarzer should now feel refuted by the reality of the Ukraine war and the cruel war crimes.

Nevertheless, she recently wrote in an open letter to the federal government that Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) should not supply Ukraine with heavy weapons.

In it, Schwarzer no longer defends Putin's policies - but several experts accuse her of suggesting that Ukraine capitulate.

On Sunday, May 8, Chancellor Scholz warned against visiting President Selenskyj.

What is left of Schwarzer's attitude towards Putin at the time?

And what was she wrong about back then?

Ukraine war: Alice Schwarzer appeased in 2014 - "Putin is being demonized"

Back to 2014: Immediately after calling Putin an autocrat in her post, Schwarzer reassured: "But we remember: Germany also needed almost two hundred years to find democracy.

Russia also needs time.” After the annexation of Crimea, the West accused Russia (at the time) of “wanting to start a new Cold War and invade Ukraine;

President Putin is being demonized and even compared to Hitler." And then she argued, just as the Kremlin boss is doing today in the wake of the Ukraine war: "At first it was the West that did not rest and pushed irresistibly towards the East - and keep pushing."

With a choice of words from Nazi Germany, she wrote in 2014 against the - supposedly heterogeneous - media of Europe and the USA: "The Western media seem to be in line with their condescension towards Russia and the blame - good West, bad East." Especially today At least the highly controversial referendum in Ukraine served as proof of the blindness of the West: “96.77 percent of the people living in Crimea vote for belonging to Russia?

And all this 'without interference' under the eyes of international observers.

So what!

'We', the EU and America, do not recognize this and are threatening sanctions.”

Alice Schwarzer accused the West of launching an offensive against Russia in 2014

“In any case, we, the West, are relentlessly advancing towards the East.

In 1990, the West had promised the then Russian President Mikhail Gorbachev, who initiated the opening, not to extend NATO's sphere of influence further east.

A lot has happened since then, too much,” wrote Schwarzer and continued: “Today Russia is surrounded: on the southern flank by predominantly Islamist-ruled states, on the western flank by democracies that are on the offensive with a full feeling of their economic power” - associating economic strength with the military word "offensive".

And it didn't stop there when she went on to write: "If Ukraine became part of the EU, NATO would be right on the Russian border.

[...] The encirclement of Russia does not only frighten Putin.

After all, it wasn't that long ago that Nazi Germany invaded Russia - in the end there were 25 million dead: children, women, men.

25 million.

The children and grandchildren of the murdered live in Russia today.” Vladimir Putin chose similar words at the military parade on the anniversary of Russia's victory over the Nazis in 2022.

Schwarzer appeals to the West to speak to Putin on an equal footing

At the time, Schwarzer's appeal to the West was to hold "phone calls on an equal footing" with Putin: "A Russia without a Putin would probably end up in the fist of the mafia.

Today, Putin seems to be the lesser evil - and in the eyes of his compatriots he is mutating into a hero.

So the West would be well advised to be less arrogant.

Instead of sanctions, negotiations would be called for, instead of great power statements from Washington, telephone calls between Berlin and Moscow on an equal footing.”

Chancellor Olaf Scholz: at the table with Vladimir Putin.

© dpa

Could one have spoken to Vladimir Putin “at eye level” earlier?

Is he really "the lesser evil" for Russia?

Of course, Schwarzer was also unable to foresee the war of aggression in 2014 - just as Western politicians did not see the brutality of the attacks coming a few weeks or days before the Russian invasion, and heads of state like Scholz and Macron visited Putin in Moscow.

It seemed too late for talks at eye level - Vladimir Putin denied his plans shortly before the attack.

And there are quite a few experts who are accusing the West of being too close to Putin - as German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier has to put up with.

One thing, however, Schwarzer seemed to note in 2014: “Assuming that someone like me would have trouble with the state power in Russia.

After all, not only the president is suspected of not being pro-feminist.” Nevertheless, she understands Putin, so that's not the point.

(cat)