“Not Our Enemy”
Merz does not want to break bridges with Russia
3/5/2022 4:23 p.m
The CDU agrees that Putin is a war criminal. However, party leader Friedrich Merz does not want to lose contact with Russia even after the attack on Ukraine and emphasizes the bond with the Russian population.
Despite the Russian war against Ukraine, the CDU is in favor of maintaining contact with Russia, for example in the cultural sphere. There was agreement that not all bridges to Russia should be broken here, said CDU leader Friedrich Merz after a meeting of the CDU leadership in St. Ingbert, Saarland. “We want to stay in contact with those who want to continue the exchange with us, especially in the cultural field. And we should also continue it from our side, wherever possible”. “Russia is not our enemy,” emphasized Merz, who is also chairman of the Union faction in the Bundestag.
“We have a despotic government there, a criminal regime that is now waging this war of aggression.” The CDU differentiates very precisely between the government and the Russian population, “from whom we hope and expect that we can continue to have good exchanges and be good neighbors with them in the future and that we may be able to stay in the long run again at some point”.
“This is a war by the Russian government”
The city partnerships with Russia should not be terminated by the German side either, said Merz. “We would like to keep in touch with those who are well-intentioned and those who are critical of this mission in Russia – and there are many of them.”
He emphasized: “This is not a war of the Russian people against Ukraine. This is a war of the Russian government and the nomenklatura around President Vladimir Putin against a sovereign, democratic country.”
In a decision passed unanimously by the CDU leadership, Putin is expressly described as a war criminal. The International Criminal Court is called on to collect information on all hostilities in Ukraine “and to investigate any act of genocide, crimes against humanity or war crimes”.