Between Moscow and Berlin (III) (Germany and Ukraine)
KIEV/BERLIN (Own report) – German foreign policy experts are calling
for sanctions to be applied to Kiev’s government circles after
Ukrainian parliamentary elections at the end of October. According to
a recent paper published by the German Institute for International and
Security Affairs (SWP) measures should be undertaken against members
of the Ukrainian elite, even if the leader of the opposition, Yulia
Tymoshenko is released from prison. Berlin and the EU must intervene
because of the “multiple ramifications of bad governance” in the
Ukraine. Berlin’s campaign against the Ukrainian government, which is
becoming increasingly aggressive, is aimed primarily at preventing
Kiev from enhancing its ties to Moscow, while pushing it closer toward
German spheres of influence. Berlin is thereby continuing to pursue a
strategy, already applied during World War I and thereafter,
particularly with the support of nationalist Ukrainian exiles in
Germany. A publicist from the entourage of the foreign ministry was
initiator of the strategy. He had elaborated his concepts already
during the reign of the German Kaiser and had played a political role
in maintaining contacts to the Ukrainian exile nationalists even in
the Federal Republic of Germany. Already in the 1920s, this
cooperation had included terrorist activities in Poland, and it led to
numerous exile Ukrainians collaborating with Nazi Germany in the
1930s.