DISINFO: Angela Merkel resents Russia because she did not receive the Nobel prize
SUMMARY
All this clownery with the alleged poisoning of Navalny de facto shows that there is almost no difference between the positions of the German and American establishment, if we talk about their attitude to Russia. The reason for Angela Merkel’s resentment could be the fact that she never managed to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for her success in negotiating the Minsk agreements regarding the war in Donbass. There is a strong parallel between the events in Belarus and the Ukrainian experience. It is she who makes the European Union torn between two decisions. On the one hand, the EU considers the Ukrainian experience of the Maidan negative and does not seem to want to repeat it on the streets of Minsk. On the other hand, the European Union has ideological guidelines that cannot be ignored. Their essence is that the “bad dictator” should be condemned, and the “democratic protesters” should be supported. The fact that such an undertaking will not lead to anything good, and there is no practical benefit in this case, does not stop the European Union. Only ideology matters and not thinking whether it will be beneficial or not. Europe must support democracy. Period. It is useless to look for a rational component in such actions of Germany.
RESPONSE
There is no clownery in the “alleged” poisoning of Alexei Navalny. He fell ill during a flight and the plane had to make an emergency landing in Omsk, where doctors said he was in a coma and they were trying to save his life. Later he was transferred to Berlin’s Charite Hospital. The German federal government said that toxicological tests provided “unequivocal evidence of a chemical nerve agent of the Novichok group” in the blood samples of Alexei Navalny. The European Union condemned the poisoning of Alexei Navalny in the strongest possible terms. Claiming that Angela Merkel’s personal grudge is behind Germany’s stance towards Russia shows the latter as an innocent victim of Western Russophobia. This approach ignores conflicts in Georgia and Ukraine. However, it should be noted that the conflict in eastern Ukraine is a well-documented case of Russian armed aggression. The international community, including the European Union, recognises and condemns clear violations of Ukrainian sovereignty and territorial integrity by acts of aggression by the Russian armed forces since February 2014. As for the EU being torn, it should be noted that on 2 October 2020, the European Council imposed restrictive measures against 40 individuals identified as responsible for repression and intimidation against peaceful demonstrators, opposition members and journalists in the wake of the 2020 presidential election in Belarus, as well as for misconduct of the electoral process. Restrictive measures include a travel ban and an asset freeze. The claim that the “EU does not want to repeat Maidan in Minsk” denigrades Ukrainian people and their protest against the decision of President Viktor Yanukovych not to sign the Association Agreement with the European Union. The protesters' demands also included constitutional reform, a stronger role for parliament, formation of a government of national unity, an end to corruption, early presidential elections and an end to violence. By adding quotation marks around the words bad dictator and questioning condemning of a president who has been in the office for the last 26 years ignores the facts on the ground. Protests in Minsk started after latest presidential elections which are considered fraudulent by a large part of Belarusian society. The European Union has also stated that the elections were neither free nor fair. There is no evidence that the protests in Belarus are funded and organised externally (nor was this the case in Ukraine) or are directed against Russia or the Russian speaking population in Belarus. The objectives of the protests are set forth by the Coordination Council of Belarus opposition. They include: an end to political persecution of citizens, the release of all political prisoners, the annulment of the 9 August presidential election results, the need to hold new elections based on international standards. Thus, by claiming that there will be no practical benefit from condemning illegitimate politicians the disinformation narrative tries to prove the benefits of an undemocratic pro-Kremlin worldview.