bOLLy ENn - Menteri
Luar Jerman Frank-Walter Steinmeier telah memanggil untuk menahan diri dalam
mengenakan sekatan baru ke atas Rusia, sebagai ahli politik, pernia-gaan dan
orang awam di Jerman berkembang semakin ragu-ragu meletakkan lebih banyak
tekanan pada Moscow.
Steinmeier
mempertahankan sekatan yang telah pun dikenakan terhadap Rusia, tetapi berkata
bahawa dia masih lagi suka "kerjasama bukan konfrontasi" dengan
Moscow, menurut satu temubual hari Sabtu dengan Thüringische Landeszeitung.
"Kita
mesti mengelakkan daripada terjatuh ke dalam mod automatik [sekatan], yang
membawa hanya kepada kebuntuan dan tidak meninggalkan pilihan dasar lagi,"
kata Steinmeie .
Komen
itu dibuat hari yang sama bertindak Menteri Luar Ukraine Andriy Deshchytsia
merayu untuk menguatkan hukuman, termasuk mengenakan "pencegahan"
yang, terhadap Rusia dalam satu temu bual akhbar Jerman yang lain, Die Welt .
Idea
menampar Moscow dengan sebarang sekatan lagi nampaknya kurang sokongan popular
di Jerman. Yang merasakan awal minggu ini di Berlin apabila Canselor Angela
Merkel, menghadiri acara kempen parti beliau, telah dicemuh oleh perhimpunan
penunjuk perasaan memegang tanda-tanda, yang berbunyi 'Eropah yang kuat hanya
dengan Rusia' atau 'Hentikan Nazi di Ukraine.’
Para
perniaga Jerman juga tidak berpuas hati dengan percubaan untuk memukul Moscow
keras dengan sekatan. Surat sulit kepada kerajaan Jerman dari ruang
Jerman-Rusia perdagangan asing, yang dibocorkan kepada Reuters melalui seorang
pegawai di Berlin memberi amaran kesan bumerang sekatan kali ini kepada ekonomi
Eropah.
"Sekatan
ekonomi lebih mendalam akan membawa kepada keadaan di mana kontrak akan semakin
diberikan kepada syarikat tempatan, projek itu akan digantung atau ditang-guhkan
oleh pihak Rusia, dan industri Rusia dan ahli-ahli politik akan beralih kepada
Asia, khususnya China," surat itu berbunyi.
Alasan
kepada kerajaan juga mengatakan kehilangan bahagian pasaran bagi firma-firma
Jerman dan Eropah, akibat daripada sekatan, akan menjadi "jangka panjang
dan mampan", menyebabkan "kerosakan tidak boleh diperbaiki"
kepada kedudukan daya saing Jerman.
Lebih
daripada 6,000 firma Jerman menjalankan perniagaan di Rusia dan perdagangan
antara kedua-dua negara menyumbang 300,000 pekerjaan di Jerman.
Risiko
ekonomi setakat ini tidak berhenti daripada mengancam Merkel Rusia dengan banyak
sekatan. Beliau telah dikritik kerana ini oleh senior-senior beliau, bekas
canselor Gerhard Schroeder dan Helmut Schmidt.
Schmidt
mengecam birokrat EU pada hari Jumaat, menuduh mereka "megalomania"
dan cubaan "merampas Ukraine." Beliau memberitahu Bild Daily bahawa
"pegawai-pegawai dan birokrat di Brussels . . . yang dihadapi Ukraine
dengan keperluan yang jelas mempunyai untuk memilih antara Barat dan Timur."
Menteri
Ekonomi Jerman dan Naib Canselor Sigmar Gabriel berkongsi pendapat pada hari
Rabu. Walaupun ahli politik meletakkan sebahagian besar daripada menyalahkan
untuk krisis Ukraine pada Rusia, dia juga mengakui kelemahan dalam dasar EU.
"Ia
pastinya bukan bijak untuk mewujudkan kesan di Ukraine bahawa ia terpaksa
mem-buat keputusan antara Rusia dan Kesatuan Eropah," kata Gabriel, seperti
yang dipetik oleh Reuters.
Mereka
mungkin mendarabkan, tetapi suara-suara tidak puas hati terhadap dasar EU ke
atas Rusia setakat ini tidak mungkin untuk menghentikan sekatan retorik
Brussels', menurut pengarah sebuah kumpulan pemikir yang berpangkalan di Paris,
Institut Demok-rasi dan Kerjasama, John Laughland.
"Barat
terlibat dalam semua keluar perjuangan ideologi dan geopolitik dengan Rusia,
yang ia bercadang untuk menang," Laughland memberitahu RT. "Terdapat
pelbagai perkara Eropah boleh lakukan. Ia boleh roda bergigi searah sehingga
apa yang ia sudah selesai.
Ia
boleh menerbitkan senarai panjang orang-orang yang tertakluk kepada sekatan
peribadi. Ia pasti akan meninggalkan program liberalisasi visa, yang Rusia
telah meminta selama hampir satu dekad sekarang.
Dan
ia juga boleh mengurangkan pertukaran ekonomi. Rusia tidak mempunyai mana-mana
ilusi - golongan elit Eropah bersedia untuk memotong hidung mereka untuk
menjengkelkan muka mereka.
Dalam
erti kata lain, mereka bersedia untuk menjalani atau membuat orang lain
menja-lani kesakitan ekonomi yang teruk untuk mewajarkan dan menanamkan permusuhan
ideologi mereka ke Rusia."
'It’s
a Dead End': German FM joins chorus of discontent over Russia sanctions Rhetoric
. . .
German
Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier has called for restraint in imposing
new sanctions on Russia, as politicians, businesses and the general public in
Germany grow ever more skeptical of putting more pressure on Moscow.
Steinmeier
defended the already imposed sanctions against Russia, but said that he still
preferred "cooperation instead of confrontation" with Moscow,
according to a Saturday interview with Thüringische Landeszeitung.
“We
must avoid falling into an automatic [sanctions] mode, which leads only to a
dead end and leaves no more policy options,” Steinmeier said.
The
comment was made the same day Ukraine's acting Foreign Minister Andriy
Deshchytsia appealed for toughening sanctions, including imposing “preventive”
ones, against Russia in an interview to another German newspaper, Die Welt.
The
idea of slapping Moscow with any further restrictions appears to be lacking
popular support in Germany. That was felt earlier this week in Berlin when
Chancellor Angela Merkel, attending her party’s campaign event, was booed by a
rally of protesters holding signs, which read 'Europe is strong only with
Russia' or 'Stop the Nazis in Ukraine.'
German
business is also unhappy with the attempts to hit Moscow hard with the
sanctions. A confidential letter to the German government from the
German-Russian chamber of foreign trade, which was leaked to Reuters by an
official in Berlin warns of the boomerang effect the sanctions would have on
the European economy.
"Deeper
economic sanctions would lead to a situation where contracts would increasingly
be given to domestic firms, projects would be suspended or delayed by the
Russian side, and Russian industry and politicians would turn to Asia, in
particular China," the letter reads.
The
plea to the government also says the loss of market share for German and
European firms, resulting from sanctions, would be "long-term and
sustained", causing "irreparable damage" to Germany's
competitive position.
More
than 6,000 German firms are doing business in Russia and trade between the two
countries accounts for 300,000 jobs in Germany.
The
economic risks have so far not stopped Merkel from threatening Russia with more
sanctions. She has been criticized for this by her predecessors, ex-chancellors
Gerhard Schroeder and Helmut Schmidt.
Schmidt
slammed the EU bureaucrats on Friday, accusing them of “megalomania” and
attempts at “annexing Ukraine.” He told the Bild Daily that "the officials
and bureaucrats in Brussels ... are confronting Ukraine with the apparent
necessity of having to choose between West and East."
German
Economy Minister and Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel shared the opinion on
Wednesday. While the politician laid the major portion of blame for the Ukraine
crisis on Russia, he also admitted flaws in the EU’s policy.
"It
was certainly not smart to create the impression in Ukraine that it had to
decide between Russia and the EU," Gabriel said, as cited by Reuters.
They
might be multiplying, but voices of discontent over EU’s policy on Russia are
so far unlikely to stop Brussels' sanctions rhetoric, according to director of
a Paris-based think tank, the Institute of Democracy and Cooperation, John
Laughland.
“The
West is engaged in all-out ideological and geopolitical struggle with Russia,
which it intends to win,” Laughland told RT. “There are all sorts of things Europe
can do. It can ratchet up what it’s already done.
It
can publish longer lists of people who are subject to personal sanctions. It
will definitely abandon the visa liberalization program, which Russia has been
requesting for nearly a decade now. And it can even reduce economic exchanges.
Russia
should not be under any illusions – the European elites are prepared to cut off
their nose to spite their face. In other words, they are prepared to undergo or
make other people undergo severe economic pain in order to justify and entrench
their ideological hostility to Russia.”
READ
MORE: http://on.rt.com/ijty6d
