Anne Will allows her guests to speculate about the future of Vladimir Putin and Russia.
The verdict was devastating. The man who probably knows the Russian dictator Vladimir Putin best in Anne Will’s group didn’t take kindly to the former KGB agent. “He is a man of war,” author Viktor Erofeev said of Putin, describing him as a former Leningrad “backyard thug”. Erofeyev reminded that Putin had no qualms about the sinking of the Kursk submarine or the wars in Georgia and Chechnya. The consequence of his war of aggression on Ukraine was a regime in suffering: “It is a deathly pain,” the writer judged; And what’s more: Russia is actually “already a corpse, in the morgue.”
German Fear: Putin’s Most Powerful Weapon
The other guests didn’t necessarily want to follow such a drastic approach, especially since Anne Will asked if the country was in agony, whether that wouldn’t make Putin all the more dangerous. There it was again, the German fear that Marina Weisband identified as Putin’s strongest weapon. Because nobody in the group really believed that the despot in the Kremlin really wasn’t bluffing and could also use nuclear weapons.
Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann recalled the Russian occupation of the damaged nuclear reactor in Chernobyl and called it Putin’s narrative that he would not shy away from using nuclear weapons. He wanted to break up the western alliances from within.
Anen Will (October 16): The guests
| Marina Weissband | German-Ukrainian journalist |
| Martin Schulz | Chairman of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation |
| Marie Agnes Strack Zimmermann | Chair of the Defense Committee |
| Sarah Pagung | Political scientist and Russia expert |
| Viktor Erofeyev | Writer, emigrated from Russia in spring 2022 |
Martin Schulz argued similarly. You don’t have to be afraid of nuclear attacks; rather, splitting the enemy is a strategy of the ruler in Moscow. If you look at the marches of the Querschwuurbler and Nazi friends in German cities and the statements of prominent confused people like Wagenknecht and Precht, this strategy has certain successes.
Western solidarity would help against Putin’s actions, “then he doesn’t really have a cut,” Marina Weisband put it. She outlined the steps towards a peace settlement, stressing that freezing the conflict as it is is the best thing that can happen to Putin. But wars should not be rewarded. Instead, international law must be strengthened so that violations of it can also be punished.
Arms deliveries to Ukraine demanded
So what can be done to prevent Putin from securing what has been achieved, as Sarah Pagung explained? Deliveries of arms to Ukraine, of course. Which embarrassed Comrade Martin Schulz because he wanted to defend his chancellor, who absolutely does not want to send battle tanks to Kyiv – for whatever reason. Joint action so far has been a recipe for success, according to Schulz, who, like many other Social Democrats, has failed to answer why Germany is not delivering the desired tanks. In any case, she has never met anyone in Europe who is afraid “that Germany is doing too much,” according to Liberal Strack-Zimmermann.
Anne Will
Anne Will, Das Erste, from Sunday, October 16, 9:45 p.m. ARD media library
Sarah Pagung reminded that the US provided as much support to Ukraine as all Europeans put together. Germany is in fourth place in absolute figures, but we are 13 in terms of gross domestic product. And leadership also means, according to the political scientist, referring to statements by Scholz and Minister Lambrecht, “taking certain risks”. (Daland sailors)
