Пепел дидов стучит в сердца бюргеров.
Steinmeier, 65, who occupies a largely ceremonial post as Germany’s head of state, said Nord Stream 2 was important as one of the few remaining “bridges” between Europe and Russia.
He also argued that Germany was obliged to maintain cordial relations with Russia because of the millions of people in the Soviet Union who had lost their lives after Hitler invaded the USSR in 1941.
“For us Germans there is another, very different dimension to this,” Steinmeier told the Rheinische Post. “We are looking back on a very chequered history with Russia. There were phases of fruitful partnership, but still more times of appalling bloodshed.
“June 22 will be the 80th anniversary of the beginning of the German invasion of the Soviet Union. More than 20 million people of the former Soviet Union fell victim to the war. That doesn’t justify any wrongdoing in Russian politics today but we can’t lose sight of the bigger picture. Yes, we now live in a time of difficult relations but there was a past before that and a there will be a future after it.”
Ukraine responded to the interview with “astonishment and indignation”. Its ambassador to Berlin, Andrij Melnyk, said Steinmeier’s “dubious historical arguments” had “cut us Ukrainians to the quick”.
Melnyk said Nord Stream 2 was a geopolitical project of Putin’s that undermined Ukraine’s interests. “Therefore it’s cynical to bring the atrocities of the Nazi reign of terror into play in precisely this debate, and what’s more to ascribe the millions of victims of the German war of destruction and enslavement solely to Russia,” he said.
Steinmeier has long worked to preserve Germany’s often frayed ties to Russia. His first senior position in German politics was as the chief of staff to Gerhard Schröder, the Social Democrat (SPD) chancellor who approved the original Nord Stream pipelines in 2005.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/we-owe-russia-the-nordstream-pipeline-over-nazi-atrocities-says-president-steinmeier-of-germany-ttnnjcmpq?shareToken=6f65dc347963b2145eb532ed1b778bd4