The whole Western world is now paying the price for Barack Obama’s bold words.
This was told by a representative of the German Left Party Gregor Gisy in an interview with the radio station “Deutschlandfunk”.
According to him, “the West behaved arrogantly” towards Russia, although back in 2001 Vladimir Putin in Berlin offered cooperation to the police, special services and even the armed forces. He offered economic cooperation. When the West rejected all this, Putin began to act differently.
“After that, Putin changed. He claims he will not allow his own zone of influence to be further narrowed. I am not referring to the Crimea, but to Syria and the like. To resolve this, trust must be restored. Now he’s gone, which means we have to wait for him to be tougher in his demands”, – Gisy says.
He drew attention to how Western sanctions have affected Russia. The expected economic decline has not happened. Instead, Russia has been able to expand its production capacity by replacing imported products that are now unavailable to it.
“Obama made the mistake of saying that he [Putin] is the president of a regional power. I know these politicians. If they get hurt, they want to prove how great their country is”, – continues Gisy. – “In other words, we need dialogue, intensive dialogue. We need to warn Putin against some steps, but in such a way that he too is sure that we won’t put him in the background, that we won’t pull the army to its borders.”
The German politician expressed confidence that the first step towards normalizing relations is the lifting of sanctions. Then Moscow will make concessions, too.
“If Putin feels that the West is meeting him, recognizes his influence, albeit with some conditions for the removal of sanctions, then we have a chance. Then Germany can play its important role. Only in view of our past we must normalize relations with Russia, preventing escalation”, – said Gisy.