Sept. 14 (EIRNS)–City of London mouthpiece Ambrose
Evans-Pritchard freaks out at the statements on by the foreign
policy chief of the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party,
Alexander Gauland calling for improving relations with Russia.
Evans-Pritchard took exception to a recent interview Gauland
gave {Die Welt}, where he said “Germany and Europe have no
interest in a further weakening of Russia.  Germany’s relations
with Russia should be managed with meticulous care.”
Evans-Pritchard was even further alarmed by Gauland’s evoking of
the “Rückversicherungsvertrag,” the secret “Reinsurance Treaty”
between  Germany and Russia in 1887, negotiated by Otto von
Bismarck.  Evans-Pritchard also quotes Gauland saying,  “The
Germans sometimes forget that Russia played a positive role at
key moments of German history, saving Prussia from destruction.
It happened in 1763, 1806-1807, 1813, in Bismarck’s unification
of the Reich in 1866-1870, and in German reunification in
1990-1991.”
Evans-Pritchard writes that when Gauland said Poland should
not have been let into NATO and that Russia’s loss of “Holy Kiev”
was an unthinkable injury comparable to the loss of Aachen or
Cologne for Germany, this “sent shivers down my spine.”
Nonetheless Evans-Pritchard writes that he had subsequently
spoken with Gauland who, of course, reassured him that he was not
advocating Russia taking over the Ukraine.  “All I am saying,”
Gauland told Evans-Pritchard, “is that we must try to understand
what makes Russia tick, and why it reacts to things.  That is the
essence of Bismarck’s policy.”
Nonetheless this only led Evans-Pritchard to worry that even
his euro-skepticism might have go too far, writing, “We may swap
the EU Leviathan, for a dangerous and fragmented Europe.”  He
rants on that Germany is already half-out, half-in Europe as
demonstrated by its refusal to back intervention into Libya and
Syria, and continuing to talk with Russia and China.