German Chancellor Angela Merkel
The frayed relationship between German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Russian President Vladimir Putin shows the disintegration of a decadeslong effort by both nations to bind the World War II adversaries to each other.
Three days after the crash of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, German Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin for at least the 30th time since the Ukraine crisis erupted.
She had a blunt message, according to people briefed on the phone conversation: Call me if you have progress to report in defusing the conflict.
That was July 20. The two leaders haven't spoken since.
The silence marks a breach in perhaps the most important relationship in European geopolitics, illustrating the daunting challenges facing the West in trying to calm the crisis in Ukraine. More broadly, the frayed relationship between Ms. Merkel and Mr. Putin shows the disintegration of a decadeslong effort by both Germany and Russia to bind the World War II adversaries to each other. Mr. Putin, in particular, appears to have given up, for now, on his yearslong project of nurturing Germany into the role of Russia's closest European partner, illustrating the increasing degree of international isolation he seems prepared to accept.
Ms. Merkel's well of patience with Mr. Putin finally ran dry in the aftermath of the Flight 17 disaster, German officials say, as promises by the Russian president to lean on the rebels to improve the situation at the crash site failed to change things on the ground. Departing from past efforts to avoid a quick escalation of the West's response, Ms. Merkel threw her weight behind sanctions targeting swaths of the Russian economy despite doubts in Berlin over their efficacy.
Ms. Merkel and Mr. Putin over the years have both invested heavily in improving ties between their countries. For the pragmatic chancellor, it was a case of Realpolitik transcending what people close to her have long described as her chilly relationship with the Russian president and one characterized by mistrust. The coalition agreement approved by Ms. Merkel's new government late last year called for "open dialogue and broad cooperation with Russia," noting that "security in and for Europe is only attainable with and not against Russia."
Mr. Putin's charm offensive intensified in 2001, the year after he came to power, when he came to parliament in Berlin to deliver one of his first major foreign-policy addresses. He was speaking the fluent German he honed as a KGB officer in Dresden in the 1980s and drew repeated standing ovations.
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