Ukrainian PM on German TV: Russia toppling Hitler was a bad thing

• published: 09 Jan 2015
• views: 110

Live before millions of German viewers, in Berlin with the Reichstag on the background, Ukraine's PM Arseniy Yatsenyuk thunders: „nobody is entitled to rewrite the outcome of WW2“. The setting is an interview with Tagesthemen („Issues of the day“)- Germany's second most important TV news magazine. Which outcome, we beg his pardon? But the – wait for it – the Soviet invasion of Germany of course! How is that for rewriting the outcome of WW2? In a country where the denial of the Holocaust a criminal offense, and where Nazi insignia – so popular in Ukraine today - is illegal, Yats had just declared: „Russian aggression in the Ukraine is a threat to world order“ „We can all very well remember the Soviet invasion of the Ukraine and Germany. This must be prevented from happening again” The genius immediately went viral on social networks like Twitter. Among the first to comment on Yats' words was the rather lovely left-wing politician Sahra Wagenknecht, leader of the Linke, whom RI readers know very well from the video where she piled on our less lovely Angela for being a US stooge. Wagenknecht wrote in her tweet: “Yatsenyuk would rather have avoided the liberation from fascism through the Soviet Union” Valetina Lisitsa, the famous Ukrainian pianist, joked: “Germany made a mistake lending another USD 500 million to Ukraine. The real help would have been to lend 500 psychiatrists.” But the Ukrainian revisionist craze had just begun. Ukrainian MP Anton Gerashchenko posted on FB squawking about a “Russian-fascist Army in Stalingrad”. And we poor simpletons always thought there was an invading, genocidal Nazi army there, eventually encircled by the Red Army! According to Lisitsa, who first discovered and translated Gerashchenko's post, the latter was shared by Ukraine's Interior Minister. Germany's mainstream media have yet to catch up, but probably never will because their embarrassment is palpable. According to the German weekly newspaper Der Freitag „that Ukraine has a Nazi problem is by now sufficiently known. (…) Now Yatsenyuk has compared today's Russia with the 1940 Soviet Union, and Germany to the Third Reich. This, without being contradicted, in a major German news program, in 2015“ Admittingly, it had been a difficult day for poor dear Yats. Things had not gone as hoped during his visit. Nor would they improve the day after [Thursday], when he met our Angela. So, we may say, Yats has just tried a little too hard to win German hearts and minds by elevating their country's role in that Christian genocide to that of... I kid you not ... the actual victim of Soviet aggression! Now, leaving aside the effects of excessive drug consumption, of which Yats' Berlin speech graphically reminds us, let's quickly see what actually happened. Yatsenyuk arrived in Berlin on Wednesday to ask for some spending money, some investment and a little political support—in begging mood, big time. But apparently, Germany's political and business establishment are slowly losing patience with him. He has so far been granted only 50 million dollars, peanuts for the desperate regime of a very near failed state. Investors are unimpressed with reforms happily promised but never quite delivered. They also grumble that Ukraine is doing too little for peace and niceness. Eckhard Cordes, chairman of the Eastern Committee of the German economy, said: „we want to see corruption tackled and bureaucracy simplified as soon as possible. These are absolute prerequisites so we can again invest in Ukraine“ As for diplomatic support towards next week’s peace talks, this seems unlikely. According to Der Spiegel, Angela Merkel has made it clear she does not believe in a quick solution to the crisis. She has not confirmed whether the summit, originally planned for next week, with Russia and France will take place at all. Somebody looks fed up In fact, Merkel does not even look that pleasantly at him anymore, judging from the picture published by Der Spiegel. Even she seems to have had a gut full. Has little Yats's historical revisionism brought Europe’s new emerging reality home to her too? Whether contempt or love conquers all, it is hope that ever endures.