Former economics and foreign minister Sigmar Gabriel (SPD) has admitted mistakes in Russia policy over the past decades.

“We thought for a long time that basically Russia would behave like the Soviet Union.

Because with it we had the experience that it supplied energy even in the darkest times of the Cold War," Gabriel told the FAZ podcast for Germany that it was a mistake.

"The difference is that Russia is a revisionist power, ready to use military force to change borders."

The Soviet Union, on the other hand, was a status quo power that could have been dealt with predictably, Gabriel said.

In Germany, "the peace dividend in energy policy" was overestimated.

Timo Steppat

Editor in Politics.

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The Nord Stream 2 project began during Gabriel's tenure as Economics Minister, and Germany's largest gas storage facility was also sold.

When asked if the pipeline was a mistake, Gabriel answered evasively.

From Gabriel's point of view, the federal government only bears indirect responsibility for the implementation of the Nord Stream projects.

Finally, in 2002, the gas market was liberalized.

Had it not been for this European legislation, Nord Stream 2 would have been banned, Gabriel said.

However, the company has played by all the rules of the game.

“You can find all that terrible today.

And it's also true - the dependency is far too great.

But we have drastically reduced the responsibility of politicians, even reduced it to zero in terms of security of supply," Gabriel told the FAZ podcast.

There is still a reserve for oil, but not for gas.

Gabriel responded with incomprehension to the criticism that the SPD had a problem with Russia.

“Since 2005, the Union has been responsible firstly in the Chancellery and secondly in the Ministry of Defence.

After all, everyone has been looking for ways to dissuade Russia from continuing its aggressive stance in eastern Ukraine, for example.

It's not a special idea of ​​the Social Democrats."

Regarding the debate about a new security architecture in Europe, Gabriel said: “The first step is a common foreign policy.

Security and defense policy follows foreign policy, not the other way around.” He continued: “We always talk very quickly about Europe.

We don't have anything to base it on.

We always want to play in the Masters golf tournament right away, but we can't even play mini-golf."