"I have a question": Selenskyj adviser angry about Merkel's "very amazing" statements by Putin

Created: 11/28/2022, 2:16 p.m

By: Franziska Schwarz

The then Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) spoke to Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Osaka in 2019.

© Bernd von Jutrczenka/dpa

"Wasn't that clear?": The ex-chancellor's recent statements about her relationship with the head of the Kremlin at the time are just excuses for Mykhailo Podoliak.

Munich/Kyiv - From the most recent interview that Angela Merkel gave, one sentence in particular stuck: "For Putin, only power counts".

With this sentence, among other things, the ex-Chancellor justified her course at the time to Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin.

Mykhailo Podoliak is an adviser in the Ukrainian presidential office and reacted promptly to the

interview: "Why do people say today that at the end of the chancellorship they realized that Putin only understands power?" He was outraged about the

.

"Wasn't that clear?" Podoljak asked, referring to Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014, years before the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Merkel's statements are "very astonishing," said Volodymyr Zelenskyy's adviser.

Reactions to Merkel interview on the Ukraine war: "How long was she chancellor?"

"I have a question about Mrs. Merkel: How long was she chancellor?

Multiple terms.

Putin hasn't just been president since 2021!" Merkel should have recognized Putin as a warmonger years ago and should have stopped him, according to Podoljak's assessment.

Merkel is trying to "pray away her sins, but that won't work," he scolded.

Germany could have ended gas imports from Russia and banned Russian propaganda channels such as RT (formerly Russia Today) or Sputnik in this country before the Ukraine war.

The distribution of the Russian state media has been banned in the EU since the beginning of March because they are accused of war propaganda.

In Germany, Internet providers implement the blocking of relevant websites on the recommendation of the Federal Network Agency.

Vladimir Putin: The political career of the Russian head of state in pictures

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Merkel to Putin relationship: "I no longer had the strength to assert myself"

The CDU politician Merkel had also told

that in the summer of 2021 she had tried to establish an independent European discussion format with Putin with her French counterpart Emmanuel Macron.

"But I no longer had the strength to assert myself, because everyone knew: It will be gone in the fall."