4 ms·

What is obviously wrong is that when Schröeder was appointed as the president of the board of Gazprom, Putin had already invaded Crimea. For example... edit:

What is obviously wrong is that when Schröeder was appointed as the president of the board of Gazprom, Putin had already invaded Crimea. For example... edit: I'm not claiming Washington is better than Germany, I'm from Italy, we are still paying the price for both. My claim is that EU policies were wrong because each country was playing its own game.

pphysch 4y ago
EU has problems because of massive foreign influence (mainly Washington), not because individual participant states promote their own interests, as they should. It's hard enough to maintain a federation of neighbor states. It's impossible to do that while also catering to the whims of a distant superpower.
- peoplefromibiza 4y ago
  Could be, not wanna open that discussion, but teaming with Putin (Gazprom equals Putin) it's not the smartest of moves, especially if you are a former influential European politician. Let's put it this way: there were (are) plans on every desk of every Prime Minister or President in Europe that say "we could let Putin take Ukraine and avoid a conflict that could harm us all".
  - pphysch 4y ago
    I fail to see what is wrong about maintaining the spirit of the Budapest Memorandum. Since the events of 2014, it can't be totally restored, but the spirit can be reimplemented (by Minsk, etc). It seems that many thoughtful EU statesmen, like Schröder, believe that.
    - peoplefromibiza 4y ago
      > I fail to see what is wrong about maintaining the spirit of the Budapest Memorandum. > It seems that many thoughtful EU statesmen, like Schröder, believe that I believe one doesn't maintain the spirit of the Budapest memorandum by entering the board of directors of the largest Russian gas supplier and becoming director of the board of Rosneft, largest Russian oil producer, years after Russia invaded Crimea. Don't you think? But I concede Schroeder that he might have truly believed that he could keep Russia from invading Ukraine. Nonetheless mixing politics and business was a bad mistake on his part.

pphysch 4y ago

EU has problems because of massive foreign influence (mainly Washington), not because individual participant states promote their own interests, as they should. It's hard enough to maintain a federation of neighbor states. It's impossible to do that while also catering to the whims of a distant superpower.

peoplefromibiza 4y ago
Could be, not wanna open that discussion, but teaming with Putin (Gazprom equals Putin) it's not the smartest of moves, especially if you are a former influential European politician. Let's put it this way: there were (are) plans on every desk of every Prime Minister or President in Europe that say "we could let Putin take Ukraine and avoid a conflict that could harm us all".
- pphysch 4y ago
  I fail to see what is wrong about maintaining the spirit of the Budapest Memorandum. Since the events of 2014, it can't be totally restored, but the spirit can be reimplemented (by Minsk, etc). It seems that many thoughtful EU statesmen, like Schröder, believe that.
  - peoplefromibiza 4y ago
    > I fail to see what is wrong about maintaining the spirit of the Budapest Memorandum. > It seems that many thoughtful EU statesmen, like Schröder, believe that I believe one doesn't maintain the spirit of the Budapest memorandum by entering the board of directors of the largest Russian gas supplier and becoming director of the board of Rosneft, largest Russian oil producer, years after Russia invaded Crimea. Don't you think? But I concede Schroeder that he might have truly believed that he could keep Russia from invading Ukraine. Nonetheless mixing politics and business was a bad mistake on his part.