Russian President Vladimir Putin “lives in a world of personal nostalgia” and “praises the Soviet Union and even the Stalinist regime,” Christoph Heisgen, the next chairman of the Munich Security Conference, said in an interview with the German RND.
Putin “seeks to rebuild a Russian empire reminiscent of the Soviet Union,” he added.
By threatening to ban Memorial, an organization that investigates and investigates the crimes of Stalin’s time, Putin wants to develop a completely different understanding of history, “which has nothing to do with Sakharov, Russia, openness and reconstruction,” Foreign Affairs Adviser.
Putin believes the United States and Europe have weakened following the change of power in the United States and Germany and the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, the politician said. Putin is also looking for an excuse to invade Ukraine, he warned.
The concentration of Russian troops on Ukraine’s borders is alarming, Heisgen said, urging Berlin, Brussels and Washington to make their position clear to Moscow.
“Putin will interpret the soft reaction as a weakness, and this will only strengthen his expansionist aspirations,” a former UN spokesman said in an interview.
Because US President Joe Biden has to deal primarily with US internal problems, he can pay only limited attention to foreign policy, so Germany and Europe need to be more active in the international arena, Heisgen said.
In early December, it became known that Wolfgang Isinger would resign in 14 years to chair the Munich Security Conference.
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