According to the deputy speaker of the Federation Council, this may be an irreparable blow for the next generations of Germans and EuropeansMOSCOW, January 25.
/tass/. The decision to send German Leopard tanks to Ukraine for the sake of aggressive European Russophobes may negate all the historical achievements of Germany as a leading European power, and also turn out to be an irreparable blow for the next generations of Germans and Europeans. This opinion was expressed by the Vice-speaker of the Federation Council Konstantin Kosachev.
"In this situation, the decision to send German Leopards to the Eastern Front in favor of aggressive Eurorusophobes may seem to [German Chancellor Olaf] Scholz and his team an attempt to save face and leadership. But in fact, it can in one fell swoop erase not only all the historical achievements of Germany as a leading European power, but also any civilized and peaceful future of Europe," the senator wrote in an author's article in Rossiyskaya Gazeta.
"Probably, pleasing Poland or Latvia today is tactically more important to German leaders than thinking about future ties with Russia, but for the next generations of Germans and Europeans, this may turn out to be an irreparable blow, because of which current politicians will go down in history not in the role in which [the first Chancellor of Germany Konrad] Adenauer and [French President Charles] de Gaulle (the signatories of the Elysee Treaty)," Kosachev continued.
The vice-speaker of the Federation Council stressed that for Germany, excursions into history "really have a painful character." "The last campaign against our country in a coalition with other European allies and Japan just put it on the "wrong side of history." And for many Germans, these analogies cause clearly unpleasant feelings," the politician believes.
In his opinion, the arrival of German tanks on Russian soil will finally "bury" demagoguery about "protecting values, freedom, democracy," etc. "This will also change the attitude to what is happening in general. Even the aggression of 1941 itself will now lose its status as purely Hitlerite. Taking into account what is happening today, it will be perceived not only as Nazi, but also historically German, and, taking into account the allies then and today, also pan-European. The year 2023 will thus look like the year of an attempt at revenge," the politician believes.
He noted that it would not be about a new Cold War, but about the continuation of the Second World War, "in which the Anglo-Saxons simply changed sides to a more "correct" one in the spirit of Senator Harry Truman's famous statement of June 24, 1941: "If we see that Germany is winning, then we should help Russia, and if Russia wins, then we should help Germany, and thus let them kill as much as possible."
Earlier on Wednesday, the German government confirmed that it would send Ukraine 14 Leopard 2 tanks from the reserves of the German Armed Forces and issue re-export permits to other countries. According to German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, the first Leopard tanks can be delivered to Ukraine in about three to four months.
