2023-05-12 11:05:49
The former editor-in-chief of the Bild newspaper, Kai Diekmann, was in Moscow with Austria’s Federal Chancellor. He describes his memories to the Berliner Zeitung.
Kai DiekmannBenjamin Pritzkuleit/Berliner Zeitung
Shortly after the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine began, Kai Diekmann, former editor-in-chief of the Bild newspaper, traveled to Moscow. He accompanied the delegation of Karl Nehammer, Austria’s Federal Chancellor. In a recent interview with the Berliner Zeitung, Diekmann describes what he experienced on the trip in April 2022.
He says in an interview: “I was last in Moscow in 2022 because I accompanied the Austrian Chancellor on his trip to Putin. That was in April 2022. Six weeks after the start of the war. A one-on-one meeting between Putin and Nehammer was arranged. The conversation was long and lasted more than an hour. At the time there was a lot of speculation that Putin was allegedly not in control of the situation, that he didn’t have the right information. The massacres in Butscha were just four days ago, and Nehammer had been there immediately before his trip. In this respect, the conversation was doubly valuable: On the one hand, Putin saw someone say to his face what the West thinks of his military action. By the way, Putin spoke in German and also used the word ‘war’ and not ‘special operation’. On the other hand, the whole world was then interested in Nehammer’s personal impression of Putin: is he really healthy? Does he know exactly what is happening?”
In the conversation conducted by Tomasz Kurianowicz, editor-in-chief of the Berliner Zeitung, Diekmann recalls the various conversations with Vladimir Putin and his gradual radicalization and development into a war criminal. Diekmann also strikes soft tones. When asked how the war could end, the journalist says: “I have no idea. My only wish is that, just as we have matured into military experts and generals over the past 15 months, someday we would start thinking, ‘What could peace look like?’ I miss this public debate.”
You can read the complete interview on the online pages of the Berliner Zeitung and in the weekend edition of 12./13. May 2023.
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