Putin can no longer bank on Germany and France to help him save face in his war with Ukraine.

In my blog entry of 20/02/2015 I wrote that,

"For the Germans what, really, is the difference between the terrorists in Iraq, and those in eastern Ukraine?

Two words rather sums it up viz. "Russlandversteher or Putinversteher"

As the Economist (May 10th 2014) pointed out many months ago,

"When Germans add the word Versteher (one who understands) to a term, they generally mix flattery with irony. So a Frauenversteher (one who understands women) is usually a man who boasts excessively about his knowledge of the opposite sex. The label is now being attached to so-called Russlandversteher or Putinversteher: members of the [German] elite or intelligentsia who gush with empathy for Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin, on talk shows, in journals and at dinner parties." (my emphasis)

So here, in their own backyard, many EU politicians are too scared to send military equipment to Ukraine's Poroshenko, who is fighting Putin-backed terrorists, but more than willing to send military equipment to, and with boots on the ground, fight terrorists thousands of miles away.

As Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., so succinctly stated, Merkel, like so many other EU leaders, will use,
 
 “any available excuse not to provide [Ukraine with] defensive arms.” ( Fox News): (Not Archived) (my emphasis)

This is what is emboldening Putin to prepare for his imminent attack on Mariupol." (blog entry : 20 February 2015) (video above : BBC News : 20 February 2015)

And even then, foremost amongst those "Putinversteher" was non  other than former German Chancellors, Gerhard Schroeder and Angela Merkel. 

Is is therefore any wonder that today, as reported by Constanze Stelzenmüller (left),

• Rolf Mützenich, the head of the SPD’s parliamentary faction,has denounced demands by his Green and Free Democratic coalition partners for heavy weapons deliveries to Ukraine as “irresponsible.
• Chancellor Olaf Scholz himself is becoming thin-skinned. He has
  dismissed three Bundestag members who had visited Ukraine and called for more military support, as “boys and girls.” In a recent interview, he suggested sending heavy weapons would make Germany and NATO “parties to the war.”
• Ukraine is begging for heavy weapons, as Russia steps up its offensive in Donbas. But on this question Scholz has dithered, prevaricated and thrown up smoke, to mounting anger among Germany’s allies and his coalition partners. (Brookings : 26 April 2022) (my emphasis)
  

In April of this year, Germany's Justice Minister, Marco Buschmann (right), already put paid to Chancellor Sholtz's suggestion that, " ... sending heavy weapons would make Germany and NATO “parties to the war.” ".

As RFERL reported,

"The German justice minister says the delivery of tanks and other heavy weaponry to Ukraine would not -- by international law -- constitute his country’s entry into the war against Russia.
...
Justice Minister Marco Buschmann  told the Welt am Sonntag newspaper in an interview published on April 16 that international law does not label the delivery of weapons as an entry into war." (RFERL : 16 April 2022) (my emphasis)

So why is German Chancellor Scholtz (left) still shielding behind the legally discredited fig leaf that, " ... sending heavy weapons would make Germany and NATO “parties to the war.” when, according to his own Justice Minister, sending heavy weaponry to Ukraine, " ... would not -- by international law -- constitute [Germany's] entry into the war against Russia.???

As Reuf Bajrovic (right) writes,

"The Russian aggression against Ukraine has led to a reassessment of Germany’s long term Russia-centric Eastern European policy. The moral and political credibility in Europe that Germany rebuilt after WWII and enjoyed since the end of the Cold War is now spent.
...
Berlin’s reluctance to help Ukraine has shattered many convenient illusions about its eastward approaches. Critics argue that former Chancellor Angela Merkel’s appeasement of Russian President Vladimir Putin paved the way for what is now the largest armed conflict on the continent since the Second World War. "  (Haaretz : 12 May 2022) (my emphasis)

Not only Olaf Scholtz but also Emmanuelle Macron, recent re-elected President Of France, is also coming under scrutiny for adopting the French version of Angela Merkel's appeasement of Putin.

As reported by Katya Adler (left),

"And while there's smouldering resentment that Germany has been too soft for too long on Moscow - driven largely, it's believed, by economic interests - many of the same critics are also impatient with Mr Macron for repeatedly pursuing diplomatic openings with Vladimir Putin." (BBC News : 10 May 2022) (my emphasis)

One should also not underestimate the French economic interests that underpin banker Macron's 'diplomatic tête-à-tête's' with Putin.

BBC News : 10 May 2022

And as Putin continues to try to raze Ukraine's Donbas to the ground, both Macron and Scholtz find themselves in a rather 'knotty diplomatic' situation.

The success of President of Ukraine Zelesky's global diplomatic efforts to gain international support for Ukraine's effort to expunge Putin's forces from ALL of Ukrainian soil has, in some ways, exposed the appeasement policies of Macron, and the prevarications of Scholtz. 

Putin can now no longer bank on Germany and France to help him save face as he continues to lose in his war with Ukraine.

(to be continued)