Secession
KALININGRAD/MOSCOW (Own report) In Moscow, the German foreign minister argued for ,,human rights"and ,,democracy."The purpose of the trip was the opening of a consulate in Kaliningrad, a former German region, where Berlin's geopolitical interests conflict with Moscow's sovereign rights. The real reason for the stopover was a mission for the western military alliances, which continue with their expansion into the Middle East and the encirclement of Russia. Berlin's task is to neutralize Russia's foreign policy protests by interfering in Russian domestic politics. German pressure makes use of noticeable tension within the GUS (commonwealth of independent states) and seeks to weaken the Russian central state with secessions.
The German foreign minister's Russian visit follows the Munich military conference at the beginning of February. A formal agreement by all NATO ministers in Munich, settled, for the moment, differences over the expansion into Arab and Asian resource states ( ,,war against international terrorism"). The precise NATO program which envisions the arming of Turkey to become a ,,frontline state", and includes a military deployment offensive up to Tadzhikistan, is to be published at a NATO conference in June. These endeavors touch on border regions of the GUS-States, especially Chechnya.
Potential for tension
Consequently, Chechnya is the focal point of German attempts to encourage secession, or at least autonomy, for the region of the Russian Caucasus. Overt and covert contacts with internationally wanted terrorists are to serve these goals, while public pressure is applied on Moscow at the same time. During the preliminary stage of the German foreign minister's Russian trip, Gernot Erler (SPD) the coordinator for German-Russian cooperation, threatened that Russia would ,,end up in a global dead end"if it insists on its current sovereign rights in Chechnya. The foreign office judges Russia's democratic development ,,very negatively."It is reported that in a politically paternalistic fashion, Foreign Minister Fischer expressed, ,,with unusual candor", to Russian President Putin ,,Germany's misgivings"concerning ,,internal democratization"and ,,human rights"because of Russian actions in Chechnya. Aimed, particularly, at the German public, this statement is to prepare for the potential tension caused by Berlin's Caucasus activities. Because of these activities Fischer met with protests in Kaliningrad. Several Russian organizations pointed to Berlin's contacts with Chechen terrorists, who propagate the invasion of NATO troops into the Northern Caucasus.
Failing state
The German foreign minister's Kaliningrad stopover on the occasion of the opening of the, long controversial, German consulate 1)is described by Berlin's press as an avowal of a former German settlement seeking its future as a state. According to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, the population of Kaliningrad in the meantime harbors ,,its own sense of home land which, however, does not refer to the mother land, but to its own region - and thus also to its European history and its geographic location". 2)Allusions to autonomy and secession are unmistakable.
Berlin's government consultants view Kaliningrad as one of the ,,'failing states' in immediate proximity"and set their sights on Kaliningrad as an operational area for the EU's independent military power. 3)
1) See also earlier article Strategic Projects
2) See also earlier article German ,,peace researchers"want ,,transnational civil society"for Kaliningrad
3) See also earlier article Plans for Action
Sources:
Deutschland zeigt Flagge in Kaliningrad; Koenigsberger Express 02.02.2004
Proteste gegen Besuch von Joschka Fischer in Kaliningrad; DW-Monitor Ost-/Suedosteuropa 09.02.2004
Russische Verhaeltnisse; dpa 11.02.2004
Zwischen Berlin und Moskau knistert es; Die Welt 13.02.2004
Streit mit Russland über die EU-Erweiterung; Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 13.02.2004
Zwischen Kaliningrad und Koenigsberg; Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 13.02.2004
