The situation in the morning: How do you negotiate with a liar?

Tunnel vision in the crisis

“See, see, you've got it.

Crisis, crisis you got.

Dark, everything has become dark,” the Fantastischen Vier sang four years ago.

At the time, the musicians recommended simply escaping the trouble and going »to the underground«, digging a tunnel: »Yes, we’ll dig in, come down with us, you can’t stay up here.« Head in the sand – is that all the more true now?

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"Fantastic Four" musicians Schmidt, Beck, Dürr, Rieke: "Yes, we dig in"

Photo: Britta Pedersen/DPA

Isn't this all getting to be too much?

At least that's how it feels,

.

However, digging in may only bring temporary recovery.

Symptomatic treatment.

It relieves the pain but does not eliminate the problem.

And now?

Incidentally, my neighbor is a doctor and an optimist – and I think that is a very nice and also extremely sensible combination.

Apparently I've recently complained too much about the accumulation of crises, at least one evening he brought me a book by the young Dutch historian Rutger Bregman, it says

.

It was already on the bestseller list, but for some reason I missed it.

Maybe had too much crisis stuff on my mind.

In any case, Bregman wants to do away with the (Western) theory that humans are fundamentally evil and that the varnish of civilization is very thin.

Instead, evolution made humans cooperative beings, capable of solidarity and compassion.

Are we maybe more helpful than we thought and also more resilient?

Maybe we don't have to bury ourselves.

Perhaps we live here on the surface in a society in which the stronger are prepared to pay their fair share and not leave the field as the winners of the crisis.

In which we

fight a pandemic together and

an invaded people

It would be nice.

Then at some point there will be a holiday from the crisis again.

Well, as you can see, reading it has an effect.

But unfortunately we have to switch back to the villains of the story.

• Steinmeier on the consequences of the war "Are we prepared to accept significant disadvantages?"

Russian lies

An article by Hartmut Rosa published in SPIEGEL is causing heated debates.

The sociologist accuses the German government of "not having to talk about a ceasefire in Ukraine, not even thinking about negotiations and continuing the war."

Rosa's counter-proposal:

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Kremlin ruler Putin

Photo: Mikhail Klimentyev / AP

The sociologist at the drawing board of history.

Apart from the fact that I find it a bit odd to accuse Baerbock and Co. of warmongering after an autocrat with imperialist westward drive attacked a sovereign European state, Rosa's grand strategy has a catch:

First, because he obviously has no interest in doing so as long as he thinks he can still achieve his real goal: the elimination of Ukraine as an independent state and the subsequent destabilization of the West.

And secondly, because it is almost impossible to deal with a liar and a war criminal.

See the grain deal recently.

Less than 24 hours after the agreement, among other things, not to shell the port of Odessa, Putin's henchmen fired rockets at the port of Odessa.

What is the word of a man worth who, in an ideal world, should have been in custody long ago in The Hague?

What to do?

I'm neither a sociologist nor a grand strategist, I don't know.

That is why the supply of arms from the West to Ukraine is so important.

They don't prolong the war, they could shorten it.

• Guest article on pacifism from the well-heated living room: Why do you Germans think that we Ukrainians cannot win the war? 

You can find more news and background information on the war in Ukraine here:

• EU states apparently agree on a gas emergency plan:

  Moscow is using its gas reserves as a means of exerting pressure.

  Now the EU wants to counteract this with an emergency plan.

  According to diplomats, it should be announced on Tuesday – there are exceptions for numerous countries.

• “We're in a serious situation.

  It is also time that everyone understood that«:

  Russia is further restricting its gas supplies to Germany.

  Economics Minister Robert Habeck speaks of Putin's "perfidious game", the Ukrainian President of an "open gas war".

• That's behind Putin's next turbine trick:

  There is no maintenance due - but Gazprom is shutting down another pipeline turbine.

  Deliveries via Nord Stream are likely to fall to a fraction of capacity.

  What does the Kremlin intend to do with it? 

• That's why the »extended operation« of the nuclear power plants doesn't really help us:

  In view of the looming energy crisis, the coalition is struggling to get Germany's nuclear reactors to run longer.

  The Greens would also be willing to compromise.

  But that doesn't solve the problem. 

• President Zelenskyi is changing commanders in eastern Ukraine:

  since August 2020, Ukrainian Major General Hryhoriy Halahan has led the "special operation" in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

  Now he has been released – and transferred to the secret service.

German deliveries

Annalena Baerbock is traveling to the Czech Republic today and then on to Slovakia.

It doesn't take much imagination to know what criticism the minister will hear in Prague and Bratislava:

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Foreign Minister Baerbock

Photo: IMAGO/Florian Gaertner / IMAGO/photothek

Because in the course of the so-called ring exchange, the Eastern European NATO countries are supposed to deliver combat tanks of Soviet design to the Ukraine, while the Germans in return fill up the depots of these partners with Western tanks, i.e. mainly "Leopards".

Sounds good, the Eastern Europeans have delivered hundreds of tanks to Ukraine.

Now I think the German arguments are quite understandable.

Firstly, that there are too few combat tanks in the Bundeswehr stock.

Secondly, that it will take a few months before the industry can deliver the first tanks.

But the whole thing is embarrassing.

Germany appears not only as a brake on arms deliveries to Ukraine, but also as an insecure cant when it comes to agreements within NATO.

Some people are already writing on Twitter using the hashtag #Ringtäusch.

It is possible that the trend is now towards the direct delivery of Western weapon systems to Ukraine.

Such signals came from the FDP and Greens, and there are also initial, cautious voices in the SPD that can be interpreted in this way.

My colleague Kevin Hagen spoke to Michael Roth, chairman of the foreign affairs committee in the Bundestag.

The SPD man says: "The aim of the ring exchange was primarily to support Ukraine in the short term with weapons that soldiers there can use without training, but that hasn't worked properly so far."

Now one is "in a new phase of the war".

According to Roth, the deliveries of modern Western weapons made so far have made a real difference, they would help Ukraine noticeably in its defense against the invaders.

And: At least the first three of the promised »Gepard« anti-aircraft tanks arrived in Ukraine at the beginning of the week.

• Battle tanks for Ukraine: why the exchange of rings is now halting 

Here is the current quiz of the day

The starting question today: "Be there, will be wild!" - Who tweeted this sentence on December 19, 2020?

Winner of the day...

... is Radim Brixí.

The Czech had two weeks off and spontaneously got into his aluminum boat with a 5 hp outboard engine and sailed down the Elbe from Prague to Brunsbüttel.

A real adventure, as he tells my colleague Heike Klovert in an interview.

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Radim Brixi

Photo: Marcel Klovert / DER SPIEGEL

By the way, Brixí experienced on his trip, in the spirit of my neighbor, that the people are basically good: »I've met so many helpful and nice people.

For example, a man invited me to his family party, we played cherry stone spitting and table tennis, and I was allowed to camp in his garden.«

The latest news from the night

• Biden condemned Trump's inaction during the Capitol storm:

  "Blood dripped from them, they were in the middle of the carnage": In drastic words, Joe Biden described the fate of the police officers during the Capitol storm - and sharply attacked his successor.

• Storm gusts sometimes make extinguishing work "impossible":

  In southern Brandenburg, hundreds of people have to leave their homes.

  A pig fattening facility burned down completely.

• Armed robbers storm a sermon in New York - and rob jewelry worth millions:

  Pastor Lamor Miller-Whitehead is known for extravagant performances - with plenty of bling and designer outfits.

  According to the New York police, unknown persons are said to have attacked his church.

  During the service.

• Actor Paul Sorvino died:

  The role as gangster Paulie in »GoodFellas« made him famous: Paul Sorvino is dead, he was 83 years old.

  His famous daughter said a moving farewell on Twitter.

The SPIEGEL + recommendations for today

• Fields between glittering walls:

  Photovoltaics over fields and vegetable crops have enormous potential and could accelerate the energy transition.

  But so-called agri-PV will change the landscape.

  Is there a dispute like with wind power? 

• Cursed profits:

  Europe's largest mineral oil company, Schell, actually wants to go green as quickly as possible.

  But business with fossil fuels is booming.

  Insights into a transformation with resistance.

• Rocket to the afterlife:

  How would you like to die?

  Without suffering, self-determined, with a beautiful view, says the doctor and inventor Philip Nitschke.

  Here he explains how his »Sarco« from the 3D printer works.

• How could my mother give love to eleven children?

  Nobody ever messed with us on the playground: I grew up with ten siblings.

  Now I have had a son myself and I ask myself: how much did my childhood shape me? 

I wish you a good start into the day.

Yours Sebastian Fischer