2024-04-20 21:27:18
Sahra Wagenknecht says: Berlin is doing too little for peace in Ukraine. At “Maischberger” she pulls out a piece of paper. It doesn’t tell the whole story.
Sahra Wagenknecht has once again shown an alleged path to a ceasefire in the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine. She referred to past peace negotiations in Turkey.
“We’re not coming to Istanbul again in 2022,” moderator Sandra Maischberger tried to stop the politician when she pulled a piece of paper out of her pocket on Monday evening’s show.
“Yes,” Wagenknecht objected and read out a quote from the then Ukrainian negotiator to the host’s loud protests.
- Sahra Wagenknecht, Chairwoman of the “Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance”
- Katrin Göring-Eckardt (Alliance 90/The Greens), Vice President of the Bundestag
- Michael Roth (SPD), foreign expert
- Kristin Helberg, Journalist
- Marcel Reif, moderator
- Kerstin Palzer, ARD journalist
- Claus Strunz, journalist
Russia would have been willing to end the war if Ukraine had committed to being neutral and not joining NATO, Wagenknecht read.
“That’s what the Ukrainian negotiator said now,” she added. If that is true, one should build on the outcome of the negotiations at the time and try to find a peace agreement on such a basis now.
Wagenknecht: Schröder could explore conditions with Putin
The quote probably comes from an interview by Dawyd Arachamija on Ukrainian television in November 2023. Arachamija is the parliamentary group leader of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s party.
According to the newspaper Ukrainska Pravda, the negotiator at the time also said in the interview that Russian promises of peace in exchange for neutrality could not be trusted. There were no necessary security guarantees from Moscow.
Over a year ago, Wagenknecht had already alluded to peace negotiations in Istanbul that were allegedly torpedoed by the West.
Former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder (SPD) made a similar claim. The chairwoman of the “Alliance Sahra Wagenknecht” brought this up again on Monday evening at “Maischberger” – as a possible negotiator for the federal government in Moscow.
“I don’t want Schröder to lead the negotiations,” said the former left-wing politician on the talk show. “But if someone like Scholz has a former Chancellor in his party who has access – why doesn’t he send him there and ask him to explore under what conditions Putin would agree to a ceasefire?” she said. “That would be important information. Instead of always saying: He doesn’t want to negotiate at all.”
In an interview with t-online, Wagenknecht explained that Schröder had already returned from a conversation with Putin in March 2022 without any results by saying that he had traveled to Moscow at the time without an official order. In the ARD documentary on Schröder’s 80th birthday, the former Chancellor emphasized that he had deliberately not coordinated with the federal government: “There was no reason to call.”
Wagenknecht also irritates with his statement about the economy
The former “Bild” co-editor-in-chief Claus Strunz accused Wagenknecht in the commentary panel at “Maischberger” that her proposal with Schröder fits in with the series of proposals with which “she is basically applying to be Putin’s press spokesman.”
Wagenknecht also caused people to shake heads on the talk show with her well-known statement that the German economy was shrinking while the Russian economy was growing. “So we’re doing something wrong,” was their conclusion. “The war economy is growing,” said Katrin Göring-Eckardt (Alliance 90/The Greens).
“Maischberger” to Ukraine
The Bundestag Vice President called for greater military support for Ukraine. The aim must be for the attacked country to be able to negotiate a sustainable peace with Russia on an equal footing.