Why is Germany So Friendly with Putin? Germany's Russia Policy Explained - TLDR News

With a new German Chancellor in place and the threat of Russia seemingly on the rise, we take a look at Germany's usual policy towards Russia and Putin, whether that's likely to change, and why it's causing a rift in new ruling coalition.

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[KoRbA]

"Russo-German relations are partitioned" I nearly shat myself when you mentioned Germany, Russia and partitions in one sentence. I am Polish btw.

[peakkewl]

I thought he was saying "Russland Würster" and I was so confused why the Germans are calling these people Wurst as in sausage. Until I saw that it's supposed to be Versteher 😂

[firstsecond]

"Versteher" is pronounced nothing like that. With English phonetics, it would be:
Fer-shtay-ah

[maximesimon]

As a Frenchman, I am sorry to inform my German friends that "appeasement" doesn't work. We've tested that a few decades ago.

[UrVileWedge]

I'll admit to only casually following modern Russo-German relations, but I always thought the two track policy was a tacit recognition of the economic need for Russian energy and wanting to not rock the boat. There's a reason why the generally pacifistic Greens are somehow the German party most hostile to Russia: They're the ones who also don't want to keep using Russian gas and oil supplies. It's not that they're some separate tracks. The economic leverage drives the political situation and the tail wags the dog.

[TackerTacker]

Look if any of the German viewers are suppose to take your channels serious,
you've got to stop citing or using "Bild" as a reputable sources for German news.

[tisho]

While you're at it: why not discuss Finland + the Baltics' complicated relationship with Russia. Maybe also countries like Romania, Moldova, Bulgaria, Georgia and Azerbaijan.

[brunovoigt]

I would like to mention that Gerhard Schröder, although being an Ex-Chancellor isn't very well regarded in Germany. A lot of people had a high opinion of Helmut Schmidt in recent years, but not so of Schröder. In Part because of his special relations with Putin.

[stormillion]

Speaking as a citizen of Sweden, a famously neutral country, the timidity of germany is puzzling. Sweden has since ww2 been a mediator between western powers and the communist countries, by avoiding NATO and other military alliances, but since Putin's Russia has begun heightening tensions things are changing. By necessity Sweden has been forced to become more NATO friendly and many advocate for joining the alliance. At the same time old army regiments are being reinstated and national safety is becoming a big electoral question. In contrast Germany stays surprisingly friendly with what to Sweden has become a national threat. Foreign policy vary a lot even within the EU, still it puzzles me.

[reiteration]

"Putin is currently preparing to invade Ukraine."

If only someone could've predicted this ahead of time. Sadly, there's no historical precedent for a strategy of appeasement leading to a wannabe dictator invading a neighbouring European nation.

If something like that had ever happened in the past, surely Germany (and the wider EU) would never repeat the same mistake, but alas, there is definitely no record of any such event ever taking place.

[studiosnch]

Citing "Bild" just made this report questionable. It's as if they quote Johnson's response to the parties from an interview with "The Sun".

[Frameton.]

Quoting the newspaper Bild really isn't very sensible and be assured most germans very much dislike Gerhard Schröder

[fleiftorben]

Germany often sees themselfes as a negotiator between Russia and the West. That's what I was taught in school anyways. This has historic background with the devision into west and east Germany - we have people coming from both sides and we manage to live, so we try to put our practises to get along out there.

[Thewanderers]

Dialogue is great when it works, but you have to have your red lines. Certainly if another annexation of Ukrainian territory is met with the same shrug as Crimea, then it moves from reasonable, pacifist understanding into appeasement, which is a path that leads nowhere good.

[lennarthoschke]

The historical implications between the GDR and Russia are missing! That’s an important part to understand the relationship of the two countries and why they are so complicated to understand.

[kairyss]

9:05 We're gonna need a video on how the hell the bright minds over in the EU managed to reach the conclusion that gas = green energy.

[dansattah]

If any English speakers are wondering, yes, he butchered "Versteher". You usually pronounce it like "fair-schte-uh".

[ten_tego_teges]

Germany is full of contradictions and its becoming painfully evident that it lacks the vision that France has. It may be an economic behemoth, but I can't think of an area where they showed thoughtful leadership in the past years.

[TheCutL]

So Germany is making a lot of money from business in Russia, and there naturally is a large business lobby actively trying to uphold that because those economic ties have always been susceptible to politics. Germany also doesn't suffer directly from any Russian aggression, except for stuff like the Tiergarten assassination of a Russo-Georgian dissident on German soil. Germany also doesn't pay much for NATO/EU security, so it only bears a small share of the increased need for security in Eastern Europe due to Russia's heightened aggression. It's honestly just plain self-interest being pursued.

[parmesan]

“Versteher” is pronounced as follows: ‘fair-shtay-err’.
You’re welcome english speakers.