Olaf Scholz: “I am convinced that Putin had planned his attack two years in advance” | EUROtoday

Former Chancellor Olaf Scholz assumes that Kremlin ruler Vladimir Putin can have selected a battle of aggression towards Ukraine nicely earlier than 2022. “Today I am firmly convinced that Putin had planned his attack two years in advance and there was little that could dissuade him,” mentioned the SPD politician in Berlin on the presentation of the e book “The Failure”, a essential take a look at German coverage on Russia.

Scholz was of the opinion that Putin may have achieved severe calls for, akin to rejecting Ukraine’s accession to NATO or the stationing of long-range missiles on Ukrainian territory, even with out resorting to arms. “All of this could have been done without war and the Ukrainians would have done it in the end and so would we all. That means he wanted war,” mentioned Scholz.

defended arms deliveries

He defended the generally extremely controversial tempo of German arms deliveries to Ukraine. “I think the discussion is ridiculous, if I can say it quite openly, because it has little to do with the fact that we organized the real arms deliveries,” mentioned Scholz.

It was at all times essential to think about whether or not Germany was shifting in concord with its companions and the way Russia would react. “Of course we had to test how far it could go.”

“Because there is no law book about: That’s one step too many. You can’t read that anywhere and you don’t learn it at the Bundeswehr leadership academy in Hamburg, but it’s something you have to find out,” mentioned Scholz.

The e book by Katja Gloger and Georg Mascolo analyzes Germany’s Russia coverage over the previous a long time. The authors present how warnings in regards to the Russian president’s aggressive course have been uncared for and hope for cooperation continued. It was introduced in Berlin by the chairman of the Munich Security Conference, Wolfgang Ischinger.