Provocative thesis in the ARD talk
Lafontaine: Putin and Biden are “war criminals”
3/31/2022 at 8:24 am
Oskar Lafontaine holds the West responsible and demands that an armament on the border with Russia be prevented at all costs. The former left-wing politician is extremely understanding of Russian fears and provokes “Maischberger” with war crimes statements.
Former party leader Oskar Lafontaine, who has left the Left Party, has criticized “double standards” in dealing with Russia and the Ukraine war. “We must not continue the double standards endlessly, otherwise we will never contribute to peace,” said Lafontaine on the ARD program “Maischberger” and continued: “I believe that Putin is a war criminal. But I also think that [US-Präsident] Mr. Biden is a war criminal.” He said he had been against threats and nuclear weapons his entire life. “Only, I don’t use double standards.”
NATO has also threatened Russia, including through eastward expansion. Both Russia and the US are imperial powers. Further upgrading is therefore not a solution. “We must not allow more and more short-range missiles, possibly with nuclear missiles, to be stationed on the border with Russia without warning,” said Lafontaine. “That is the great concern of the Russians and they are right.”
The 78-year-old politician sees diplomatic negotiations as the only way to achieve peace in Ukraine. “Putin has interests. The interest is that he needs to find a way out of this matter where he has miscalculated, where he obviously has difficulties,” he said. “And that’s why you have to negotiate. If you don’t do that, you prolong the war.”
Almost two weeks ago, Lafontaine announced his departure from the Left Party. “I wanted there to be a left-wing alternative to the politics of social insecurity and inequality on the political spectrum, which is why I co-founded the party Die Linke. Today’s left has given up this claim,” he explained. The background is “the gradual change in the political profile of the left” from 2015. It has become a party “in which the interests of workers and pensioners and a foreign policy based on international law and peace are no longer the focus”. In addition, the party supports a fraud system established in Saarland when acquiring members – which he can no longer support.