Editor's Note: Hans-George Wieck is a retired German diplomat with extensive experience who also served as president of the German federal intelligence service. He has been ambassador to Russia, Iran and India. He served as an adviser to former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili. He also served as head of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's Advisory & Monitoring Group in Belarus. At the age of 86, he lives in Berlin and remains active teaching in universities about transformation in Eastern Europe and chairs the nongovernmental organization Human Rights in Belarus.
Kyiv Post: Do you agree with the refusal of Germany and others to arm Ukraine, even as they agree that Ukraine is under attack from Russian forces and their proxies? And even as they agree that Russia invaded/annexed Crimea? Isn’t it a prerequisite for an independent, sovereign nation to defend its territory?
Ambassador Hans-George Wieck: “Germany shares with NATO and European Union the position that the Russian Federation has violated by use of force the peace structure of Europe established after the end of the Cold War. The Russian Federation has violated bi- and multilateral agreements regarding the sovereignty of the successor states of the Soviet Union, as the Soviet Union intervened by military force in sovereign countries members of the Warsaw Pact and threatened West Berlin under control of the USA, Great Britain and France by way of a blockade in 1948/49.
There was no military counter-action, but a political and economic answer that in the end brought about the peaceful withdrawal of the Soviet Union from East Central Europe, where the Soviet Union had intervened by using military force in East-Berlin (1953), Hungary (1956), Czechoslovakia (1968) and several times by the threat of military intervention in Poland.
A military Western reaction at the time would have launched another World War. The Western reaction concentrated on achieving containment.
The successful development of the EU, the successful reconstruction of Germany on the basis of pluralistic democratic processes, a socially rooted market economy, the independence of the judiciary system and the security provided by the North Atlantic Alliance made inroads of Soviet guided communism in Western Europe impossible. The Soviet system of the Soviet Union and of the suppressed countries in Eastern Europe collapsed because of economic deficiencies.
A war in eastern Ukraine carries the same risks as a military reaction of Western countries would have carried on the occasion of Soviet military intervention in Central European countries during the Cold war would have brought about.
The economic and financial cost to be burdened by the Russian Federation as the price for the Russian military intervention on the Crimea and in East Ukraine has to grow and should help to revise the currently applied doctrine according to which Russia has the right to intervene militarily in neighboring countries that were part of the Soviet Union.
By way of an effective armistice, hostile military actions have to be brought to an end, even if a political solution based on international law cannot be achieved here and now.
This assumption, however, will be turned into a reality only, if at the same time the Ukraine manages – in very close cooperation with the EU, its members and the USA as well as international institutions – to overcome the current economic, financial and crisis of the country and develop a social and political structure that is helpful for the development of a socially rooted democracy and economy of the country.”
KP: How representative of German thinking is the fawning opinion of Vladimir Putin held by people like former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder? Do you share Schroeder’s view that Putin’s actions are justified and the Kremlin leader is a democrat?
HGW: “The views of Gerhard Schröder on Russia and on Russian President Vladimir Putin in particular are views of a minority in the German public and in political circles. Putin’s actions are not justified and he is not a democrat in the sense of democracy based on the Western value system.”
KP: What do you make of the supposed overtures of Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko to the West? Is the West is being naive?
HGW: “Lukashenko is threatened by the new Russian doctrine for military intervention in the neighboring countries. The initiation of talks on possible improvements in the relations between the EU and Lukashenko depends on the release of political prisoners. Belarus is member of the Eastern Partnership Program initiated by the EU in 2009. So, there is a potential for improvements even if a breakthrough in terms of democratic reforms is unlikely to happen soon.”
KP: Why do you think so many in Europe are refusing to apply economically devastating sanctions that might mean something – such as banning Russian financial transactions through the SWIFT code? Combined with the refusal to arm Ukraine, what kind of leverage could the West possibly exert over Putin with the current weaker mix of sanctions?
HGW: “Europe as well as the U.S. have moved in stages in the field of economic and other sanctions. Unless reliable progress can be achieved regarding the discontinuation of military force applied against parts of Ukraine, these sanctions will be expanded and they will gain in rigidity.”
KP: What should be the over-arching response of the West to contain Russia’s propensity to meddle in affairs of its former Soviet republics?
HGW: “The loss of confidence and reliability as a partner in international affairs is the most sincere consequence for Russia as the result of the aggression against Ukraine that constituted a severe breach of international law and of the spirit that made peace possible after the end of the Cold War … The unity of the EU and its transatlantic partners is essential to achieve containment as long as substantive improvements of democracy and respect for human rights cannot be achieved in Russia itself.”
What do you see as Putin’s ultimate aim?
“Russia should be a world power strong enough to ascertain its interests on the international stage and is to be considered an indispensable part for the solution of any international crisis.”
More about Ambassador Wieck can be found on his website here.
Kyiv Post chief editor Brian Bonner can be reached at [email protected].
