Russian representatives aren’t being banned because of the behaviour of this ambassador. They’re being banned becaue they are expected to misuse the publicity of an event where Ukrainians - the Soviet republic with the second-highest military and civilian casualties - will also be present
You’ve got two parts of the former Soviet Union fighting a brutal war against each other. You probably can’t invite both sides to the same event and expect it to go okay. Which side do you invite? The one that didn’t start the problem
Look, the country that was putting soviet citizens in concentration camps and tried to starve St. Petersburg out doesn’t have shit to say about who gets to mourn their dead and who doesn’t. It’s straight up disrespectful and definitely not Germany’s place to say anything. Like honestly, what’s the worst the Russian ambassador could do? No one is asking to let him hold a speech. So what could he even do that’s so bad? Start a fist fight with the Ukrainian ambassador? Lol
Not too sure how effective this is tho, as a solution.
It seems to me like a diplomatic escalation in the sense that banning the Russian ambassador from attending this commemoration event gives Putin something to instrumentalise anyways, at least for internal consumption. In the same time this move does not apply any kind of actual pressure on Russia. So I honestly don’t know what good can come out of this move.
If Putin is going to make use of it either way, it seems to me like you might as well pick the option that makes it more likely for the event to go ahead without incident. It’s not like Germany is burning any good will with Russia here, there isn’t any to burn
Russian representatives aren’t being banned because of the behaviour of this ambassador. They’re being banned becaue they are expected to misuse the publicity of an event where Ukrainians - the Soviet republic with the second-highest military and civilian casualties - will also be present
You’ve got two parts of the former Soviet Union fighting a brutal war against each other. You probably can’t invite both sides to the same event and expect it to go okay. Which side do you invite? The one that didn’t start the problem
Look, the country that was putting soviet citizens in concentration camps and tried to starve St. Petersburg out doesn’t have shit to say about who gets to mourn their dead and who doesn’t. It’s straight up disrespectful and definitely not Germany’s place to say anything. Like honestly, what’s the worst the Russian ambassador could do? No one is asking to let him hold a speech. So what could he even do that’s so bad? Start a fist fight with the Ukrainian ambassador? Lol
Not too sure how effective this is tho, as a solution.
It seems to me like a diplomatic escalation in the sense that banning the Russian ambassador from attending this commemoration event gives Putin something to instrumentalise anyways, at least for internal consumption. In the same time this move does not apply any kind of actual pressure on Russia. So I honestly don’t know what good can come out of this move.
If Putin is going to make use of it either way, it seems to me like you might as well pick the option that makes it more likely for the event to go ahead without incident. It’s not like Germany is burning any good will with Russia here, there isn’t any to burn
So in the name of civility we can’t take proactive steps to limit a belligerent country’s ability to cause shit?