“No inviting Russian and Belarusian representatives to commemorations” — thus reads a nonbinding directive issued to German government officials by the Foreign Office, with regard to the eightieth anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany. Should the situation escalate, the circular continues, states and municipalities should consider calling the police to have Russian and Belarusian diplomats removed from the premises.
The ban on Russian participation, though technically not a formal decision, extends to the highest levels of government. The German parliament, the Bundestag, decided to invite all accredited diplomats stationed in the country to this year’s commemorations except for their Russian and Belarusian colleagues. Israeli ambassador Ron Prosor, whose state appears to be preparing the ethnic cleansing of occupied Palestine, presumably received one. Some war crimes, it seems, are worse than others.
For opposition politicians like Sahra Wagenknecht, the disinviting of Russian representatives represents a “scandal.” Speaking to the Berliner Zeitung, she accused the German state of denying the Soviet contribution to ending Nazism, an expression of the “zeitgeist designed to prepare us for war with Russia.” The reality, as is so often the case with the target of Wagenknecht’s polemics, is at least a bit more complicated. A number of figures, ranging from regional Social Democratic politicians to former Bundestag president Norbert Lammert, have criticized the Foreign Office’s recommendation, and several municipalities, including the Berlin district of Treptow, which houses Germany’s largest Red Army memorial, ignored it. The center-right coalition that governs Berlin — by no means a model for progressive policy —…
Auteur: Loren Balhorn
