Giving a free X-Ray into Russian thinking, Russia accused Germany of”remilitarizing” announcing it would spend an additional $107 billion into its $50 billion annual budget. Russia knows the horrors of a heavily armed Germany with it battle against Adolf Hilter’s Thrid Reich in WW II. No country fighting Nazi Germany lost more civilians and soldiers than Russia, estimated as high as 27 million. German war dead in WW II are estimated at about 4 million, maybe as high a 5.3 million. But the real issue that consumes Russian thinking since WW II is that its invaded by Westernj powers, something he sees NATO doing today. President Joe Biden, 79, likes to call Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion “unprovoked and unjustified” but, even as Pope Francis says the U.S. and NATO continue to arm Ukraine to the point that it threatened the Russian Federation.
With Biden supplying unlimited arms-and-cash to Ukraine, it feels a lot like WW II, where Russia was attacked by a hostile power, creating unimaginable losses over a four years period. “We perceive the statements of the German Chancellor as yet another confirmation that Berlin has set a course for an accelerated remilitarization of the country. How could this end?” said Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova. Zakharova knows the U.S. Defense budget of $813 billion eclipses Germany or any other country on the planet, including China with a budget of $5 billion. Moscow’s defense budget stands at $24.6 billion, far greater than China, but miniscule in comparison to the United States. When Zakharova says she “perceives” the Germany Chancellor’s statement as “remilitarization,” it shows the extreme sensitivity to anyone regarded as a Russian adversary.
Zakharova knows that since the Trump administration, the EU has been under increased pressure to increase defense spending to 2% of Gross Domestic Product. Scholz announcement that Germany to add an additional $107 billion to its defense budget is entirely in line with increasing defense spending in line with GDP, nothing less, nothing more. But to Russia that’s defending a bloody proxy war, battling Ukrainians fighting with sophisticated U.S. weapons, the Kremlin feels picked on by the U.S. and NATO. Kremlin officials have trouble understanding the role Brussels-based European Union [EU] plays in all member-states decisions. Zakharova still considers Germany independent to the EU, something distorting the Kremlin’s picture of Germany’s defense budget. Batting the U.S. in Ukraine, the Kremlin feels they’re at war with the United States with Ukraine doing the fighting.
Russia’s internal thinking always goes back to its horrific experience in WW II, where they sustained massive losses keeping the Nazis from conquering Moscow. Hitler’s decision to go after the Soviet Union , the so-called Eastern Front, turned into the Nazi’s downfall, despite all the casualties sustained by the Kremlin. So when Zakharaov, who’s inside the Russian bubble, hears about Germany spending more on its defense budge, it’s easy to see the Kremlin’s reaction. “How could this end? Alas, this is well known from history,” Zakharova said, showing the Russian fears over their past history with Germany. No one in the EU has been more pacifist than German, burnishing into the Germany mindset everything that went wrong in WW I and WW II. Zakaharov knows that before the Feb. 24 Ukraine invasion, Germany enjoyed a long, productive business relationship with the Russian Federation.
When the war eventually ends, conditions for the ceasefire will no doubt involve an end to U.S. and EU sanctions, designed to push Russian to leave Ukraine territory. But the longer the war has gone, the more losses incurred by Russia, negotiations won’t be easy for either side, especially Ukraine now that they’ve lost almost the entire Black Sea coast to the Kremlin. Kremlin officials have nothing to worry from a more armed Germany since they take their military orders from Brussels not from Berlin. “At a time when it’s is necessary to look for opportunities to reduce common threats, Germany, on the contrary, takes the path of escalating the military-political situation on the European Continent, directing tens of billions of euros to increase the critical mass of weapons,” Zakharova said. Kremlin officials know that Germany is no threat of all, because military decisions come from Brussels.
Kremlin propaganda coming from Zakharova tends to shift the blame back on the West for everything that’s happening in Ukraine. But if nothing else, Zakharvova gives insight into the Kremlin’s thinking 12 weeks into a war that cost so many Ukrainian lives, all because Ukraine’s 44-year-old President Volodymyr Zelensky refused to negotiate an acceptable end to the conflict. Russian President Vladimir Putin, 69, set his conditions for ending the conflict, which was no different than before the war started. Putin asked Zelensky to recognize the independence of Donetsk and Luhansk, acknowledge Crimea as a sovereign part of Russia. Zelensky rejected Putin’s conditions and teamed up with the U.S. to battle the Russian Federation. Twelve weeks into the war has been a complete disaster for Kiev, with Zelensky losing Ukraine almost the entire Black Sea coast, land-locking Kiev.
