As Germany Flexes Military Muscle, Moscow Sees ‘Russophobic Hysteria’

Now that the war in Ukraine has irretrievably roused Germany’s armed forces from a decades-long dormant phase, Berlin is hoisting the flag for more assertive military empowerment, a move that has Moscow seething. Speaking at the Kiel International Seapower Symposium in Germany Wednesday, the inspector of the German air force, General Ingo Gerhartz, said, “If necessary, we NATO countries must be prepared to use nuclear weapons if Kremlin dictator Vladimir Putin does it first.” With a flourish he added, “Putin, don’t mess with us.”It could be said that the Kremlin is messing with Berlin at the moment, if in nothing more than rhetorical terms. In a statement marking the anniversary of Nazi Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, the Russian foreign ministry said, “Russophobic hysteria is systematically fueled by almost daily public attacks against our country by members of the German government.” It accused Germany of instigating “unmotivated aggression bordering on mass psychosis” toward Moscow.As Berlin finally, if belatedly, makes good on its long-promised delivery of heavy weapons to Ukraine — a number of self-propelled howitzers, the Panzerhaubitze 2000 tracked artillery vehicles, have now arrived in the war-torn country — it has also shown less restraint in its public embrace of a higher profile for its military. In a speech to the Bundestag on Wednesday, Chancellor Scholz said the German armed forces “will be equipped so it can protect our country and our allies against any attack.” Underscoring that commitment, he cited the recent $107 billion rearmament of the Bundeswehr, or German armed forces, that was approved by both houses of the German parliament.By contrast, last year’s German military budget was estimated at about $65 billion. Founded a decade after the defeat of Nazi Germany, the Bundeswehr was predicated on being a defensive army for a democratic state and an antithesis to Adolf Hitler’s Wehrmacht, which though long defunct still casts a shadow over modern Russian history. That is why any hint of a stronger or otherwise revived German military will be watched with falcon’s eyes from Moscow. And it is likely that certain remarks made earlier this week by a co-leader of Mr. Scholz’s ruling Social Democratic Party, Lars Klingbeil, did not go unnoticed by the Kremlin. “Our history has set us up to practice restraint,” Mr. Klingbeil told a German think tank closely aligned with the SDP, as reported by the Times of London. “The West felt too safe [after the fall of the Berlin Wall] and assumed history only had this one hand.” He added that Germany needed to realize that military force was a “legitimate political tool” and that after almost 80 years of holding back, Germany must now prepare to be a “leading power” on the world stage.Furthermore, Mr. Klingbeil believes that Berlin belongs squarely on the center stage, with Brussels in the rear. According to the Times of London report, he said it is Germany that should be driving a significant expansion of the European Union by welcoming in countries such as Ukraine and Moldova, without the negotiations getting “ground down in the mills of Brussels bureaucracy.”That is the kind of anti-EU language usually employed by the likes of Hungary’s populist prime minister, Viktor Orbán, not by Berlin. It follows a recent visit to Kyiv by the German chancellor as well as the leaders of fellow EU member countries France and Italy.As intriguingly, if not more so, the party co-chairman said Germany needed to emulate China and Russia with respect to the successes those two powers have had in wooing smaller countries into their commercial and arguably political orbit. Mr. Klingbeil said Germany should seek to expand its sphere of influence in Africa, parts of Asia, and even Latin America.That is easier said than done, of course. Vast swaths of Asia, including former Soviet socialist republics such as Kazakhstan, are already closely aligned with Moscow. Even if they wanted to switch alliances, would the Kremlin allow it? That weathervane already has a name: Ukraine.

As Germany Flexes Military Muscle, Moscow Sees ‘Russophobic Hysteria’

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