Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu reacted to the statement of the head of the German military department Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, who called for a dialogue on disarmament with Russia from a "position of strength", and compared her words with the attacks of a primary school student.

Answering the questions of journalists after the geographical dictation at the headquarters of the Russian Geographical Society (RGO), Shoigu touched upon the theme of the 75th anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War and recalled that this year the Ministry of Defense and the Russian Geographical Society found sunk in the Black Sea by German aviation on November 7, 1941 motor ship "Armenia" with human remains on board.

Shoigu drew attention to the fact that this large-scale tragedy at sea is one of the many episodes of the war, which must be told.

“Especially when the current generation of politicians, for example, Germany, begins to teach us life and begins to tell us how to talk to us from a position of strength,” TASS quoted him as saying.

Shoigu noted that this is the second Minister of Defense of Germany to make such calls.

He recalled that after such a statement by her predecessor in this post, Ursula von der Leyen, he advised her to “ask my grandfather what it is like to talk to us from a position of strength”.

“Here it looks more like, you know, a performance by a primary school student attacking students of a completely different school.

Moreover, a student whose mother or father is a school director.

She can afford everything.

Guys, we are in another school, we have a different director, ”said the minister.

The official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova, in turn, noted that Berlin cannot afford to conduct a dialogue with Moscow in this way, since it is in the position of a “dependent country”.

The representative of the Foreign Ministry wrote about this on her Facebook page.

“Germany is still, not sure, that it is in a good, but certainly in a very interesting position - a“ dependent country in the security sphere ”.

And this is not my conclusion, which is significant.

I am quoting Annegret herself, who admitted that the FRG is completely and completely untenable in the military sphere without the United States, ”Zakharova noted.

The Foreign Ministry spokesman recalled that the largest American foreign contingent after Japan is located in Germany, which indicates the corresponding nature of the American presence in Germany.

Zakharova drew attention to the fact that in other European countries there are "dozens of times less American servicemen."

“What is the 'strength of German foreign policy', when Washington was listening to the Bundeskanzler, and Berlin only smiled 'strongly' in response,” she wrote.

Zakharova also recalled that Germany has recently expressed dissatisfaction with the US plans to relocate part of the American troops to other states, and also noted that Germany is "allowed, but under control" to participate in the "joint nuclear missions" of NATO countries. 

“When there is power, but it’s not yours, you cannot control it, but they don’t let you dispose of it, and at the same time you are afraid of losing it - this is a sign of dependence,” the representative of the department emphasized.

Recall that Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, speaking in the Bundestag, declared the need to talk with Russia about disarmament from a "position of strength".

Thus, she answered the question of one of the deputies, who noted that the European NATO countries allocate four times more funds for defense needs than the Russian Federation, and asked how much more these costs should increase.

“Regardless of the amount that you named, it is a fact that the Russian side has invested a lot in modernizing its armed forces, that it has new weapons, that the threat has become much more pronounced,” Kramp-Karrenbauer said in response. 

She recommended holding talks on this issue with colleagues from the Baltic States, Sweden, Central and Eastern Europe, and said that if Berlin wants to approach disarmament negotiations from a position of strength, it must strengthen its position.

“This, too, has always been a good tradition of German foreign policy and should remain so in the future,” the minister said.

  • © John MACDOUGALL / AFP

In response, the official representative of the Russian Defense Ministry, Igor Konashenkov, recalled that the aforementioned Kramp-Karrenbauer "good tradition" of Germany to conduct a dialogue from a position of strength in the 20th century led to tragic consequences for the whole world. 

The statements of some FRG politicians on the issues of dialogue with Russia "resemble the attempts of a primary school student to compensate for ignorance of the subject with the loudness of the uttered absurdity," Konashenkov stressed.

Senator Alexei Pushkov also responded to the statement of the German minister, recalling that from a position of strength they are issuing ultimatums that do not work for Russia.

"Dialogue from a position of strength" is the absence of a dialogue, like NATO has with Russia.

Screen for betting on strength, ”the senator wrote on Twitter.

Earlier, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov noted that the Federal Republic of Germany is strengthening the course of containing Russia.

During a video address to the organizers and participants of the Potsdam Meetings forum, Lavrov said that the potential of Russian-German ties remains unrealized.

"Incessant accusations, ultimatums and threats against us are becoming an everyday tool in the FRG's foreign policy," said the head of the department.