"Turning point" thesis at "Maischberger": "Putin has done something very dangerous"

Created: 09/29/2022, 05:04

Sandra Maischberger (right) with her guests, from left to right: Michael Bröcker (editor-in-chief of The Pioneer), Pinar Atalay (presenter of RTL aktuell and RTL Direkt) and Markus Preiß (head of the ARD studios in Brussels).

© WDR/Thomas Kierok

The ARD continues with the Ukraine war.

Sandra Maischberger looks at the worsening situation in Russia and asks about measures against the price increase. 

Berlin – Rüdiger von Fritsch, former German ambassador to Russia, sees “Maischberger” as a “turning point” in the Ukraine war in the first: the partial mobilization and the flight of countless people.

Vladimir Putin took a "big risk," he says.

The Russian ruler has thus terminated his “unwritten social contract of Russia”, which promised the citizens supply and order in return for subordination to the Kremlin.

The Russian journalist Tikhon Dsjadko, who joined in from Riga, Latvia, agrees: “With his partial mobilization, Putin has done something very dangerous for himself.

His position is now very unstable,” says the editor-in-chief of the former opposition channel Dozhd.

It is now becoming clear, says von Fritsch, that the silence on the Russian side about the Ukraine war was not a sign of support for Putin, but merely a lack of resistance.

Dsjadko also describes the condition of his compatriots: "They are quiet, they are silent, they are afraid!" Many are only now realizing the extent: "It's easier to just watch the war from the couch than to have to go to the front yourself ."

"Maischberger" - these guests discussed with:

• Rüdiger von Fritsch

  - former German ambassador in Moscow

• Tikhon Dsjadko -

  editor-in-chief of the Russian opposition broadcaster

  Doschd,

  switched on

• Prof.

  _

  Veronika Grimm -

  Professor of Economics at the Friedrich-Alexander University in Nuremberg

• dr

  Ulrich Schneider -

  Managing Director of the Parity Welfare Association

As experts: 

• Michael Bröcker -

  Editor-in-Chief of the news podcast

  The Pioneer

• Pinar Atalay -

  presenter at

  RTL news 

• Markus Preiß -

  head of the ARD studios in Brussels

Putin has now brought the war, which was previously taking place far away in Ukraine, “into the homes” of Russians “who have been passive for a long time.

The mothers and women whose husbands and sons are now being sent to Ukraine simply do not want their husbands and sons to be killed there,” the journalist continued.

Putin under pressure?

Ex-ambassador sees a coup in "Maischberger" in the distant future

ARD correspondent Markus Preiß is more critical: "I don't think everyone who reports is someone who hates Putin's war and loves liberal democracy," he says, also with regard to the statement by Justice Minister Marco Buschmann (FDP). .

Many of the men simply "received a draft notice and didn't want to join the army."

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Von Fritsch can get more out of Dsjadko's arguments: "When the mothers take to the streets," said the diplomat, "the soldiers' wives, the girlfriends, the sisters," then it has a "different quality."

However, von Fritsch sees a political overthrow in Russia as a long way off: The resistance to the conscription is only a matter of "courageous actions by individuals", according to the diplomat.

What is missing is networking between the individual protesters.

So far in Russia it has only been regional protests that have been put down by the leadership and are not visible in the Russian media.

According to von Fritsch, he only sees the possibility of an overthrow if "this war goes badly, the number of victims increases and what is happening there becomes clear".

Then, as in 1979 in Poland with the former trade unionist Lech Walesa, a mass movement could start.

According to the motto: "I've had enough, follow me!"

Russia protests: Should the EU take in men fleeing military service?

Maischberger asks the group critically whether Europe should actually take in the people currently fleeing Russia and takes up the controversial term "social tourism" previously used by Friedrich Merz.

Merz later apologized for the wording.

Dzyadko points out that the men who do not find protection in Europe "go to Ukraine and kill Ukrainians".

Michael Bröcker, editor-in-chief of the news podcast

, says: "We don't test the attitudes of refugees" and recalls the people who also fled from Syria to Europe in their hundreds of thousands.

Maischberger puts the focus on the situation in Russia again: "Could Putin declare martial law in order to be able to close the borders?" she wants to know from von Fritsch.

He doesn't want to rule out the possibility.

Russia has to think about how to "put a stop to" the flow of refugees from men.

Von Fritsch hopes that the sanctions will take effect quickly and that Putin will no longer be able to buy people's approval.

Until then, however, he fears further threats and actions against the West: "The game he is playing is: Who can hold his breath longer?" Bröcker lacks the patience for this: "The sanctions are useless," he says.

The goal of "giving in to the aggressor" was not achieved.

"You just have to find out," sums up the journalist.

The head of the welfare association calls for the energy cap to be financed through a “wealthy tax”

What is to come in Germany is described by the "economic wise" Verena Grimm, the Maischberger the "social wise" Dr.

Ulrich Schneider from the Parity Welfare Association.

According to Grimm, the gas storage tanks, which are now full, last for about two and a half months, but the German winter lasts longer.

Her sober conclusion: "So we will have to save gas".

Schneider draws attention to another problem: In the lower income group, there is "simply desperation," he warns.

People are now taking out loans to pay their bills - a "dangerous situation" that could lead to debt for many, according to the former Left Party member.

Schneider is in favor of an energy cap that should be financed with excess profit, property and inheritance tax.

Grimm is skeptical: with a gas price cap, the necessary incentives to save would be lost, according to the expert.

If so, then it must be designed in such a way "that we do not fuel consumption and then not get through in the end".

Conclusion of the “Maischberger.

The week” talks

As the politicians argue, the problems grow.

The talk does not bring any solutions.

Only von Fritsch is trying - albeit as a long-term possibility - to sound out the conditions for regime change in Moscow.