Correspondent in Berlin,
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"I'm glad I don't have to blame myself for not trying hard enough to prevent"
the war.
It is with this tortuous formula that Angela Merkel defended her diplomatic record with regard to her government's relations with Russia.
For the first time since her departure from power six months ago, the former chancellor reappeared on Tuesday evening on the front of the stage, in this case that of a Berlin theater of which she was the guest of honor.
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Unlike many German commentators who, since the start of the conflict, have questioned the policy
of "appeasement"
that was conducted by Berlin with regard to Moscow, the former head of government has refuted any criticism of her regard.
"I don't blame myself,"
she said.
She defended her choice to favor dialogue with this great neighbor
“the second nuclear power in the world”,
associating the French government with her decisions.
The Chancellor implicitly reproached Poland and other Eastern countries for having torpedoed Franco-German initiatives going in this direction (with Emmanuel Macron).
The Minsk agreement not sufficiently defended
The decision taken by Paris and Berlin in April 2008, during the NATO summit in Bucharest, to delay the accession to the Atlantic Alliance of Ukraine (and Georgia, defeated militarily by Russia in August 2008) was justified: at the time, Ukraine
"was not a democratic country"
and plagued by internal rivalries, she said.
On the other hand, the international community has not sufficiently defended the Minsk agreement which, in 2015, negotiated with François Hollande, aimed to establish a ceasefire in the Donbass, she added.
Read alsoLife after the chancellery: Angela Merkel's dilemma
"I did not want to provoke"
Moscow, defended Angela Merkel, while explaining that the EU refused, in 2014, after the annexation of Crimea, to vote for tougher sanctions against Moscow than it even advocated.
She also criticizes her former social-democratic allies for their refusal
to “invest in military deterrence”,
“the only language Putin understands”.
'Putin wouldn't let it happen'
For the rest, Angela Merkel believes that she guessed very early on the belligerent projects of the head of the Kremlin.
"I thought
(in 2008, editor's note)
that Ukraine should continue its democratic path but I was convinced that Putin would not let it happen,"
she commented.
"We have not managed, during all these years, to really end the Cold War",
she regretted in conclusion, while considering that Vladimir Putin made a
"big mistake".
This war, said the Chancellor, is “
an objective violation of all the rules of international law and of everything that allows us to live together in peace in Europe”.