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Historian claims Germany's Scholz is soft on Russia because he's an ex-Marxist: report

24.08.2022 21:00
A historian has claimed that German Chancellor Olaf Scholz may be too soft on Russia because he is an ex-Marxist who openly sided with the Kremlin against NATO in the 1980s, a Polish website has reported.
Olaf Scholz
Olaf ScholzPAP/EPA/CLEMENS BILAN

Echoing revelations published earlier this year by media outlets including Britain's Daily Mail newspaper, the tysol.pl website said that "Scholz's ambivalent attitude toward the war in Ukraine" not only "raises doubts" about his country's "real intentions," but is also harming "Germany's leadership in Europe."

In an article entitled "The Scholz Files: A Moscow Ally," tysol.pl claimed that, amid Russia's aggression against Ukraine, Scholz "has done a lot not to be trusted when it comes to his intentions."

The Polish website also argued that the German leader "has been criticized at home and abroad" over his stance on Russia's war in Ukraine.

German historian Hubertus Knabe wrote in an article posted on the dailymail.co.uk website in May that "Scholz, like many in Germany’s Social Democratic Party (SPD), presents himself as a mild-mannered technocrat, and a pragmatist on the party’s centre-right," but "he has a surprising political past."

Knabe claimed at the time that Scholz, who grew up in Hamburg in western Germany, "was not only a convinced Marxist but also an ardent follower" of the so-called "peace movement" at the beginning of his political career.

The "peace movement" portrayed NATO and America as "irresponsible warmongers," according to Knabe.

On many security issues, Scholz "openly sided with the Kremlin" in the 1980s, Knabe said.

He claimed that, in essays and speeches in the 1980s, Scholz "savaged" the "aggressive-imperialist NATO strategy" and its "right-wing" supporters in his own centre-left party.

"Like many young Marxists in the West," Scholz saw NATO and the United States "as the main enemy and threat to peace — and not the USSR," Knabe claimed in his article for The Daily Mail.

He also said that it "has been established" that Scholz actively "collaborated" with East German politicians and functionaries in the struggle between East and West before the fall of communism in Europe.

Scholz is known to have travelled regularly to East Germany, crossing the border a total of nine times between September 1983 and June 1988, according to Knabe

While "these events took place a long time ago" and Scholz’s political views have "no doubt" changed since then, "what has remained unchanged since the 1980s ... is the imperialist mentality inside the Kremlin," Knabe said.

He added that Russian President Vladimir Putin, "like his Soviet predecessors, seeks to deny Russia’s neighbours the right to self-determination."

Knabe also argued that "Putin must be rubbing his hands with glee" while Scholtz "sits on his hands," failing to deliver on his promises to send weapons to Ukraine.

(gs)

Source: tysol.pldailymail.co.ukdw.com