The visit to Moscow of the outgoing German Chancellor Angela Merkel, scheduled for August 20, this week was overshadowed by news from Afghanistan crawling out of all irons and filling the Russian information space. Bypass this country, engulfed in flames of madness, which - it must happen! - flashed just on the eve of their meeting, the leaders of both Germany and Russia will not be able to. Whatever one may say, without Afghanistan today nowhere.

And yet it would be fundamentally wrong to consider Angela Merkel's upcoming trip to Moscow as an addition to the global Afghan storyline.

An event of the second plan, given that Merkel is not the chancellor in five minutes and the Russian leadership today needs not to retreat into the past, but to play ahead of the curve.

Think about who will be her successor after the German elections, which are within easy reach, and what will change after that in relations between Berlin and Moscow. 

In general, the sounded definition of this visit as a "farewell tour" is inherently superficial, mechanistic and causes active rejection.

Firstly, Angela Merkel is not Vladimir Zelensky, she is not a political guest performer traveling around the capitals, but a screenwriter, playwright and chief director of European politics over the past decade and a half.

We can say she is the demiurge of this policy. 

Secondly, the very word "farewell" and all kinds of derivatives from it somehow do not really fit with Angela Merkel, despite the fact that she did not have much time left in the Chancellor's chair.

Why?

Because, of course, it is possible to say goodbye to the political legacy of Angela Merkel, including in relations with Russia, but it will be very difficult to do this if someone needs it.

And it will take a long time.

Too large, solid, solid political mass, which cannot be simply blown up and sent to the archive.

In general, against the backdrop of blazing Afghanistan, let us not forget about the meeting of two, perhaps, the most influential world politicians of the 21st century, which is rare today.

Political leaders, relations between whom for many years have been difficult, deeply contradictory and sometimes conflicting, but at the same time they cannot be called superficial and meaningless.

In late 2005, Angela Merkel, who replaced Gerhard Schroeder as German Chancellor, who became one of the few close friends of Vladimir Putin in Europe along with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, ended up being an order of magnitude less comfortable and much more problematic for Moscow as a German leader. 

Her line towards Moscow - the policy of containment - was strikingly different from the policy of the German leader of the previous era - the last "Eurosaur" Helmut Kohl, despite the fact that the future Iron Chancellor at the beginning of her political career was called "Kohl's girl."

With an unwavering hand, Merkel turned the pages of friendship between Vladimir Putin and Gerhard Schroeder and the times of the "new Entente" leaders of Russia, Germany and France - an informal and short-lived alliance of Putin, Schroeder and Chirac who teamed up to try to prevent the outbreak of war in Iraq.

It is a pity, but in the end there was a little constructiveness in the relations between Moscow and Berlin during the reign of Angela Merkel.

As the unofficial leader of the European Union, it was she who became the architect of the EU's hard line towards Moscow and the sanctions policy pursued by Brussels after the start of the Ukrainian crisis with a tenacity that some would call consistency, and some would call meaningless, stupid and stupid automatism.

This policy of sanctions, which the EU regularly extends every six months, is part of the very legacy of Angela Merkel, from which we cannot escape.

After she leaves, this legacy will live on - perhaps for a long time.

It was during her 16-year tenure as chancellor that the last nail was hammered into the coffin of negotiations on the development of a new basic agreement on partnership and cooperation between Russia and the EU.

Thank you Angela!

You have allowed us to get rid of our illusions: together with the Brussels officials, you have boarded up a new Russian “window to Europe”.

When Angela Merkel, along with Vladimir Putin seven years ago, in June 2014, entered the Normandy Four on a settlement in eastern Ukraine, it seemed that the joint work of the political heavyweights harnessed to resolve the Ukrainian crisis would get things going.

However, this did not happen either.

The work of the Normandy Four came to a standstill and actually stopped, bringing mutual disappointment to everyone.

Moscow waited a long time, but it did not wait for the moment when Berlin and Paris will finally start asking Kiev for not fulfilling their homework on the Minsk Agreements - the roadmap for Ukrainian settlement.

In turn, Moscow did not manage to convince its Western partners that the implementation of the Minsk agreements is about Ukraine and not about Russia.

Listing the topics of the upcoming talks of Angela Merkel in Moscow, the official representative of the German government named the conflict in the east of Ukraine, for the resolution of which, in his opinion, "Russia could do a lot more than it is doing."

That is, in Berlin they still believe that the ball is in the half of Moscow, not Kiev.

Another blow to Russian-German relations, which falls into the piggy bank of Angela Merkel, was the attack on the Petersburg Dialogue initiated by Berlin at the end of her reign, a key channel of interaction between Moscow and Berlin that has existed for more than a decade and a half.

This year the German side announced a boycott of the Petersburg Dialogue after Russia declared a number of German NGOs undesirable.

It is possible that the question of the future fate of the Petersburg Dialogue, which is hanging in the air, will become another topic of the last meeting between Vladimir Putin and Angela Merkel, who, upon parting, will have to finally decide whether the Petersburg Dialogue is dead or is still alive.

Angela Merkel's biographer Ralph Ballman, in his book about the "most influential woman in the world" until 2021, tries to lift the veil of secrecy over how the personal communication of the leaders of Russia and Germany took place, who over the past decade and a half have held so many meetings and negotiations that, apparently , thoroughly studied each other. Referring to sources in the German government, Ralph Bollman calls the telephone conversations of the two leaders a duel, during which Putin and Merkel "talk to each other in the face", sometimes allowing themselves to raise their voice, while, according to her biographer, Angela Merkel called Vladimir Putin "Dozens of times."

In general, taking into account all this, the communication between Moscow and Berlin of the era of Angela Merkel can be described as follows: a German braid of Krupp's steel found on a Russian rocky stone.

It is well known what happens with such a contact between metal and stone: the laws of physics in this case can also be applied to politics.

And yet Angela Merkel, who is arriving on a farewell visit to Russia, cannot be perceived solely as a terminator or gravedigger of the legacy of Russian-German relations, which, after the collapse of the USSR, was created first by “friend Helmut” and “friend Boris”, and then by Vladimir Putin and Gerhard Schroeder.

So, once deciding that the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline should exist, since it meets the interests of Germany and Europe, Angela Merkel brought the matter to the end.

Although, apparently, it was not easy for her to do this, given the pressure of President Trump, the hysteria of the so-called new Europe, the fuss inside her own country and, finally, just the cry of despair of Kiev, trying to find its own stopcock for the project, but so and failed to do so.

“Of course, Putin and Merkel will discuss further energy cooperation after the completion of Nord Stream 2.

Merkel expects Putin's assurances that Russia will not cut off gas supplies to Ukraine, "Alexander Rahr, scientific director of the German-Russian Forum, told Interfax. According to him, Merkel wants to use his visit to Russia to look objective on Ukrainian issues.

“It's good that Merkel is going to Moscow, and not just to Kiev.

She wants to save her brainchild - the Minsk agreements, ”the expert continues.

“Chancellor Merkel, obviously, intends to look at a meeting with President Putin for a compromise option on Ukraine’s participation as a gas transit country against the background of the final stage before the launch of the Russian-European Nord Stream 2 project,” adds Sergei Zheleznyak, a member of the State Duma’s International Affairs Committee.

While the Ukrainian side does not lose hope of using Angela Merkel's visit to Kiev, where she will go after Moscow, to make her a wedding general on the so-called "Crimean Platform", her participation in the main PR project of the 30th anniversary of Ukrainian independence seems to be quite dubious and unlikely.

After all, she has never participated in other people's PR projects and, moreover, understands what costs it will be fraught with in relations with Russia.

So why add negativity, which is already enough?

And finally, during her visit to Moscow, which will surely be watched with special interest and close attention in Kiev, Angela Merkel intends to lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

An unambiguous signal to the Ukrainian side: look right, learn from your elders.

Germany is Europe.

Thank you Angela.

The point of view of the author may not coincide with the position of the editorial board.