Polish and Baltic officials have reacted furiously to what they perceive as an accusation from former German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who attributed part of the blame for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to them. “I am amazed that, after everything that has happened in Ukraine, she still thinks this way,” a former leader said about Merkel, writes Politico.
Their criticism of the most important European politician of the last two decades has once again revealed what critics consider to be Merkel’s failure in her approach to Russia and question the legacy of the former chancellor, as her emblematic policies in the field of immigration and energy continue to be despised and dismantled by her successors.
In an interview given on Friday to the Hungarian opposition press Partizán, Merkel mentioned the refusal of Eastern European countries to allow direct discussions between her, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and French leader Emmanuel Macron, when she described the period before Moscow’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
“In June 2021, I felt that Putin was no longer taking the Minsk agreement seriously,” said Merkel, referring to the peace agreement on the control of the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine, concluded after the conflict in 2014-2015. “And that’s why I wanted a new format in which we, as the European Union, could directly discuss with Putin.”
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