Next chancellor watsch'n: Baltic politician hands out against Scholz - "stupid political misstep"

Created: 06/16/2022, 04:49 am

By: Patrick Mayer

Olaf Scholz has been heavily criticized for his hesitation in the Russia-Ukraine war.

After Volodymyr Zelenskyj's broadside, the Chancellor receives the next political slap in the face from Eastern Europe.

Munich/Tallin - It was an interview that caused a stir on Monday evening (June 13): In an interview with ZDF's "heute journal", Ukrainian President Volodymyr Selenskyj called for Olaf Scholz (SPD) to take a clearer stance on the Ukraine war .

"We need Chancellor Scholz to assure us that Germany will support Ukraine.

"He and his government have to make a decision," Zelensky said. "There must be no balancing act between Ukraine and relations with Russia."

Olaf Scholz: Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyj severely criticized the Chancellor

Germany came a little later than some of our neighboring countries in terms of arms deliveries.

That's a fact," said the head of state from Kyiv critically.

The focus of the criticism: Germany had announced the delivery of heavy weapons in a veritable salami tactic in the past few weeks.

Seven self-propelled howitzers 2000, four promised MARS II rocket launchers from the Bundeswehr, 15 discarded Gepard tanks - apparently nothing has arrived in the Ukraine yet, while the Ukrainian armed forces are increasingly falling behind against the Russian invasion troops in the Donbass.

We need Chancellor Scholz to assure us that Germany will support Ukraine.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy

Although Ukrainian soldiers are currently being trained in the aforementioned weapon systems in the Federal Republic, dissatisfaction is growing in Eastern European NATO member states.

For example in Estonia.

Former Estonian head of state Toomas Hendrik Ilves has now also sharply criticized Scholz.

And not just him.

The fact that the Federal Chancellor, French President Emmanuel Macron and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi probably wanted to go to Kyiv as a threesome was "the stupidest political misstep" by Western EU heads of state and government since the Franco-German push for a summit with the Russian President Vladimir Putin 2021, explained Ilves on Twitter.

Chancellor of Germany: Olaf Scholz from the SPD.

© IMAGO / Political Moments

Olaf Scholz: Estonia politician hands out against Chancellor, Macron and Draghi

He thinks it's a mistake not to take Polish President Andrzej Duda with him.

Germany and France did not consider it necessary in their mediation attempts, Ilves continued in his tweet, "to consult EU states that border Russia first".

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Like the other Baltic states of Latvia and Lithuania, Estonia lies exactly between Kaliningrad, which is the military base for Russia's Baltic Fleet, and Leningrad Oblast with the metropolis of St. Petersburg (around five million inhabitants).

In the Baltic States, there have been major concerns about their huge neighbor, and not just since the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Estonia in the Baltic States

Estonia has been independent since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

The small country in the Baltic region between Russia and Latvia and the Baltic Sea has around 1.33 million inhabitants - fewer than, for example, Munich (around 1.6 million).

Almost 440,000 people live in the capital Tallinn.

A not insignificant Russian minority, estimated at 25 percent of the total population, lives in Estonia.

The so-called Estonian Defense Forces number just 6,500 professional soldiers.

As part of the second eastward expansion of NATO, Estonia joined the transatlantic military alliance in 2004.

Critical tones have recently been heard from Estonia, which has a population of just 1.33 million.

Prime Minister Kaja Kallas warned that Scholz and Macron should not call Putin again, because otherwise he would no longer feel isolated.

At the end of April, Kallas had already demanded that Germany make faster contributions to the defense of Ukraine.

"There are big countries that could do more," said the 44-year-old politician during a visit to Berlin: "The best humanitarian aid these days is military aid for Kyiv."

Olaf Scholz: In addition to the Chancellor, Emmanuel Macron has also been criticized in the Ukraine war

In addition to Scholz, France's Macron has to put up with more and more international criticism.

He himself refers to his country's diplomatic role.

"I can't count the conversations I've had with Vladimir Putin since December.

All in all, probably a hundred hours - in full transparency and at the request of Zelenskyy," Macron recently told the daily

: "One must not humiliate Russia so that we can find a diplomatic way out the day the fighting ends. "