Bogdan Musiał, a history professor, made the assessment in an interview published this week by the wpolityce.pl website.
He said: “Germany’s eastern policy is very harmful to Europe. In fact, it is destroying our continent by favouring an alliance and coalition with Moscow."
He added, as quoted by wpolityce.pl: “Russian imperialism poses a serious threat. And the Germans helped create the Russian state in its present, threatening form."
According to Musiał, “some in Germany believe that Putin should be given a free hand, that he is doing the right thing,” wpolityce.pl reported.
“Thankfully such views are not in the majority, but we must persuade those who hold them that they are wrong,” Musiał said, as quoted by the website.
German policy towards Ukraine
He told wpolityce.pl that "it is dangerous that Germany, France and some other European Union heavyweights are blocking aid to Ukraine."
He said, as quoted by wpolityce.pl: “We must be aware of it in Poland and view Germany a bit more critically."
According to Musiał, there is “a strong pro-German pressure group" in Poland.
“It would be good if we could convince the majority of people, or a lot of people, that the German policy as regards Poland, and more generally Eastern Europe, is not necessarily in our interest, as the case of Ukraine demonstrates very clearly,” he stated.
He argued that in the past, German views had been influenced by Russian state gas company Gazprom.
“Gazprom used to send instructions about how to talk about the gas pipelines from Russia to Germany, Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2,” he said.
He also claimed in the interview that “Putin’s Russia shaped Germany’s eastern policy" in the past, "at least in part."
(pm/gs)
Source: wpolityce.pl