today it's about the approaching anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the work of the German defense minister on the tank coalition and impressions of SPIEGEL reporters from the war zone.
Putin, the imperialist
Only in retrospect does some event reveal itself
as a historical moment, as a fork in the road
.
Because it is only by looking back that things are sorted, ordered and contextualised.
That's how I feel about that February day in 2007, when a Russian head of state was a guest at the Munich Security Conference for the first time.
At the time, Vladimir Putin shocked the audience with his angry speech against NATO's eastward expansion and US influence.
I was flabbergasted.
I saw Putin's behavior less as a harbinger of future threats and more as a relapse into old patterns.
In the stuffy, overheated »Bayerischer Hof«, a retro feeling crept over me, and I put the line above my text:
»A touch of the Cold War in Munich.«
In retrospect it was more:
the overture to the hot war many years later.
It was the (symbolic) moment when Putin turned away from the West and finally set out on the path of an imperialist and aggressor.
From then on, Putin reinterpreted Russian history, imagining Russia "as a supranational 'civilization' defined by its "spiritual values diametrically opposed to the secular and liberal influences of the West".
So writes the British historian Orlando Figes in his latest clever book.
Ukraine has become "the battlefield of this 'clash of civilizations' between Russia and the West."
Putin is no different than the tsars of the past, who sought to destabilize neighboring countries in order to maintain influence.
Yale historian Snyder on the Ukraine war: "In Russia, will prevails over reason"
You can find more news and background information on the war in Ukraine here:
The most recent developments:
Kiev and Moscow accuse each other of having shot at children.
New sanctions against Russian banks.
And: Selenskyj thinks little of France's efforts to talk to Putin.
Comment - A disservice to supporters in the West:
In Munich, the West is celebrating solidarity with Ukraine – suddenly the deputy head of government fantasizes about the use of incendiary weapons and cluster munitions.
In the end, this only benefits the Wagenknecht camp.
"The Germans shouldn't be afraid of escalation, they should be afraid of de-escalation":
Russian ex-oligarch and Putin opponent Mikhail Khodorkovsky believes a revolution in his homeland is possible in the next few years.
For this, Putin must be defeated – with the help of the West.
In search of the tanks
16 years after Putin's rant, last weekend, shortly before the anniversary of the Russian attack:
At the Munich Security Conference, the representatives of Europe and America are struggling not to let support for Ukraine break off.
The Germans, leaders of the Leopard coalition, are trying to persuade their partners to deliver the (promised) tanks - so far without any resounding success.
US Vice President Kamala Harris warns China against helping Russia with arms deliveries.
And all together they are courting states of the Global South, which unfortunately remain indifferent to the Russian war of aggression.
Today, Monday, the new Defense Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) is visiting the Bundeswehr base in Munster, Lower Saxony,
where Ukrainian soldiers are being trained on the Leopard 2
.
He will renew his delivery appeal to all those who just a few weeks ago thought they had to drive the Germans but have so far fallen short of the fueled expectations.
At the same time, the EU foreign ministers are meeting in Brussels, and our Ukrainian colleague Dymtro Kuleba is a guest.
Incidentally, that Kuleba was asked again and again in Munich how this war would end.
The Ukrainian was slightly annoyed by the frequency of the question, as my colleague Roland Nelles observed on site.
Kuleba answered unequivocally:
It is about nothing less than the "complete liberation of Ukrainian territory."
Incidentally, historian Figes regards this scenario as the least likely.
According to Figes , Ukraine may be forced to agree on a compromise with the Kremlin
: »There is no other way to end this war«.
It is about Ukraine getting the best possible conditions with international security guarantees.
And that would require supplies of arms from the West.
But how resilient will the West be in the end?
Will the next security conference mark the second anniversary of the war?
In Germany, Alice Schwarzer and Sahra Wagenknecht are already causing a stir with their demand for surrender to the Ukraine, dressed up as a »peace manifesto«.
So far, more than half a million people have signed for the arms supply to be stopped.
But anyone who stops military support for Ukraine will hardly facilitate negotiations with Putin.
Why should the aggressor negotiate when the loot he desires is being laid at his feet?
The result would probably be a politically and territorially shattered, partly occupied Ukraine.
Putin would have achieved his war goals.
And possibly an appetite for more.
Munich Security Conference: Welcome to the new world chaos
How SPIEGEL reporters experience the war
They have been traveling in the war zone
for a year
: I have immense respect for our
reporters
, who are doing one of the most important and difficult journalist jobs there at this time - reporting what is going on in the
war
.
Your texts and reports from Bucha or Kiev, from Isjum or Bakhmut have touched me deeply over the past few months, made me sad, shocked, angry - and above all: enlightened.
I would like to let a colleague speak every morning here at LAGE this week.
»What was your most impressive moment during this year of war?« – I asked them this question.
Today Christoph Reuter writes about the soldier Yuri in the brutally contested Bachmut:
Soldier Yuri did not come to the meeting, was unreachable. The next morning he reports that he has to go straight on to Kiev and can come to the agreed parking lot 35 kilometers from Bakhmut beforehand.
Then, in the parking lot: Yesterday he was injured by a hand grenade thrown by a Russian soldier "about this far away" once across the four-lane road in front of us.
He had crawled into the front ditch to save two comrades who had been shot, one of his friends from the sports club in Kharkiv for 20 years. His next answer: shaking his head. He doesn't talk much, about the lack of artillery on their side: "If we could keep our distance, fewer would die". He speaks hesitantly of himself. He saved all his vacation for his birthday, which is tomorrow. His forty-first.
He will see his wife again for the first time in six months, in Kiev. Ten days free from war. A family in Mönchengladbach took them in, "thank you Germans for that," so they felt less alone.
Then he hobbles away.
Christoph Reuter's report from the front near Bachmut: "Here is Hell"
SPIEGEL Backstage – raffle
At 8 p.m. on Tuesday evening ,
Christina Hebe
, head of SPIEGEL's Moscow office,
Christian Esch
, foreign reporter in Ukraine, and
Martin Knobbe
, my fellow department head from the capital's office
, will discuss a year of Ukraine war: This is how journalists look back on the sad anniversary.
The backstage event is digital and exclusively for subscribers.
But we are giving away ten free entries here.
Interested parties please write to: info@events.spiegel.de, subject: SPIEGEL Backstage Raffle.
The closing date for entries is today, February 20 at 6 p.m.
If you are already a subscriber, you can register directly here.
Questions can be asked here in advance.
Here's the current quiz of the day
The starting question today: What is the name of one of the groups whose members took part in the storming of the Capitol on January 6, 2021?
Winner of the day...
... is the Bundesliga.
With a bit of luck, we'll just see the harbingers of an exciting season finale.
Around two thirds of the games have been played and three clubs are tied at the top: FC Bayern, Borussia Dortmund and Union Berlin.
Perhaps Bayern won't be champions for the third time in a row?
How nice would that be.
I know a few Bayern fans who are hoping for more excitement - and would gladly accept a year's break from their club's championship.
In my opinion, Union Berlin would be the perfect championship candidate anyway.
The latest news from the night
North Korea fires rockets - and the dictator's sister threatens the West:
The regime in North Korea is increasing the frequency of its rocket tests - projectiles with short ranges were currently being tested.
There were also pithy words from Pyongyang.
US actor Richard Belzer is dead:
He started out as a comedian, but most viewers knew Richard Belzer as the cynical investigator John Munch in the crime series Law & Order: The actor has now died at the age of 78.
A sad, everyday weekend in the United States:
After the bloody crime at Michigan State University, people in the United States were shot dead again at the weekend, including several young people.
Nine children were injured in a shooting.
The SPIEGEL + recommendations for today
A mayor fears for his life, but is not allowed to carry a gun:
The non-party mayor of a community near Hildesheim wants a gun because several men in town are threatening him.
But the police are against it and fear an escalation.
Right?
What pile of rubble is your medical card under?
The federal government promises the victims of the earthquake in Turkey and Syria quick visas if they want to stay with relatives in Germany.
that I don't laugh.
The walking one-man regulars:
Hubert Aiwanger's free voters could ensure that Markus Söder continues to rule in Bavaria after the election in October.
What does the party stand for?
Is a tale of woe enough for good literature?
Douglas Stuart writes about his childhood in Glasgow in the 1980s: violence, poverty and a mother who drinks herself to death.
world bestseller.
Is that great art – or just weighted-down kitsch?
Threatened world of wonders:
The marine biologist Antje Boetius, head of the Alfred Wegener Institute in Bremerhaven, has been fighting for the protection of the oceans for years.
A UN agreement could now bring the breakthrough.
I wish you a good start into the day.
Yours sincerely, Sebastian Fischer, head of SPIEGEL's capital city office
