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Foreign Minister Heiko Maas has warned against a confrontation course against Russia and thus indirectly contradicted the Green Chancellor candidate Annalena Baerbock. The EU and the West had shown Moscow with new sanctions in the Navalny case and previously in the Ukraine-Russia conflict that they would react decisively, said the SPD politician on Sunday evening on ARD. Russian President Vladimir Putin is aware of the risk of further sanctions. “But we can have no interest in joining this confrontation cry. We want a dialogue and a good neighborly relationship with Russia, ”added the Foreign Minister.
Maas criticized that there are many “smart people” who are now demanding ever tougher measures.
But one has to consider whether this really is of use to the imprisoned opposition member Alexej Navalny, for example.
He doesn't believe that - "on the contrary".
That is why one must stop chasing after those who are demanding ever tougher measures.
“Ultimately, nobody can have an interest in the fact that permanent provocations eventually turn into serious disputes - especially not here in Europe,” added Maas.
It is therefore a good thing that Russia apparently wants to accept US President Joe Biden's offer to talk.
When asked if he endorsed Biden's remark that Putin was a murderer, the foreign minister said: "I have not said it yet and I do not intend to do it."
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Greens co-leader Baerbock had previously pleaded for a tough course against Russia and China.
Among other things, she called for political support to be withdrawn from the German-Russian gas pipeline under construction through the Baltic Sea.
The federal government rejects this.
Navalny team does not want to give up
The team of the Kremlin opponent Alexej Navalny, who is imprisoned in the penal camp, expects massive restrictions on opposition work in Russia with the extremism court proceedings scheduled for Monday in Moscow.
"Next week we will be classified as extremists, all of our accounts will be frozen, our premises sealed and our offline work in Russia completely impossible," said Navalny's confidante Leonid Volkov in an interview with the Internet portal Znak that he published on Twitter over the weekend. com.
The Moscow public prosecutor's office had requested that Navalny's organizations be classified as extremist.
A court should now decide on it.
A break may then be necessary, said Volkov, in order to see what the opposition work could look like in the future.
The reorganization is being worked “feverishly”.
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"We are the last line of defense against Putin," he said, referring to the actions of the power apparatus under President Vladimir Putin against dissenters.
“If everything goes according to the worst scenario with this extremism, then it will be quite difficult to maintain the staff network.” He had previously stated in a statement that there was a risk that all of Putin's opponents would be declared extremists.
Regardless of this, the fight for the release of Navalny should continue. Volkov described it as a success of political pressure that Navalny had now been examined by civilian doctors while in custody. In addition, doctors he trusted had access to the medical examination results. In doing so, the Kremlin has entered into a “strange form of public compromise”. "I think that's a good result."