GPPi fellow appears on Deutsche Welle TV program
GPPi Fellow Sergey Lagodinsky appeared as a guest on Quadriga
, a talk show on Deutsche Welle TV which brings together experts to dissect current affairs. This week’s program, “Poisoned in London — Who is Responsible?” focused on the murder of Alexander Litvinenko. Litvinenko, a former Russian security agent, was one of the most outspoken critics of the Putin government. Other guests included Dirk Sager, veteran German foreign correspondent in Russia and Ben Aris, editor of “Business New Europe”.
Sergey Lagodinsky stressed that the murder of Litvinenko and the previous murder of journalist Anna Politkovskaya raises important questions for German and European foreign policy toward Russia. Lagodinsky said a more value-driven approach might gain ground against the pure realpolitik approach embodied by former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, now head of a Gazprom joint venture. In Germany which is set to take over the G8 and EU presidencies in January 2007 this might mean that the value-driven approach of Chancellor Angela Merkel will gain the upper hand against the realpolitik approach of her opponents.
When prompted on President Putin’s possible responsibility for the murder, Sergey Lagodinsky stressed that it is important to pose the question of responsibility more broadly. While the President might not be directly responsible for the murder, Putin might still be responsible “to the degree of having empowered the forces” that might have carried out the murder (the FSB/former KGB and the nouveau-riche bureaucrats) while at the same time “devaluing the human rights of his opponents” to the degree that they become fair game. When questioned whether the murder was committed to cause a public embarrassment for Putin, Sergey Lagodinsky emphasized it was Putin’s reaction to both the Politkovskaya and the Litvinenko murders that caused the most embarrassment. Lagodinsky stressed that while he respected Putin as a politician, his utter “lack of sensitivity” responding to the murders is a sign of the “imperial cynicism” that characterizes the current Russian government. Lagodinsky argued that this resource-powered “imperial cynicism” devoid of any positive vision is not a viable long-term strategy for Russian foreign policy.
For more information on this week’s guests on Quadriga, please click here.