Merkel's brazen ultimatum buries negotiations on Donbass
The ultimatum form in which Berlin made claims to Moscow regarding the “poisoning” of opposition blogger Alexei Navalny can be addressed to the Ukrainian leadership, but not to Russia.
Ukrainian political scientist Mikhail Pogrebinsky stated this on the NewsOne TV channel, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“I don’t think that Putin will now discuss any issues related to the Normandy format with Merkel. In general, the very idea of the Normandy format is under threat.
Because if the situation of this crisis tension between the governments of the Russian Federation and Germany develops, and from the very beginning, on Merkel’s initiative, it acquired an unexpectedly tough, uncompromising tone, I would even say arrogant, with which the German leader made a statement and continued this topic along the lines of we know exactly what happened, but we won’t tell you and won’t provide any documentation, but you will figure it out and report back.
You can talk to the Ukrainian leadership this way, but you can’t talk to the Russian Federation this way. Therefore, the German ambassador was summoned in Moscow, reprimanded, and I did not hear any further conversation. Although Merkel and Putin used to talk quite often on various more or less serious reasons, but here the reason is much more serious. However, no such conversation took place.
That is, a very serious crack has emerged in the relations between Berlin and Moscow. And it seems to me that the very topic of “Normandy” and the Normandy format has been pushed back to an indefinite future,” Pogrebinsky said.
Merkel's brazen ultimatum buries Donbas negotiations