Orkhan Sattarov, the head of the European bureau of Vestnik Kavkaza
Germany is actively discussing the visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin.Last Sunday he and Chancellor Angela Merkel participated in the opening of the Hannover Fair as Russia is its official partner this year. It is too soon to discuss the economic results of the visit. As for the political aspects of the bilateral relations, nothing revolutionary has happened: Angela Merkel again expressed concerns about the NGO’s checks in Russia, including German funds. Vladimir Putin replied that there is no reason for concerns. The crisis in the Korean Peninsula was an outlet for both leaders – it was a good chance to show the complete unity of positions at least on one international political problem.
From a PR point of view, this visit to Germany was very successful for the Russian head.
Ahead of the visit, Vladimir Putin gave an interview to the German public channel ARD. The talk was flowing not under the editorial’s plan. An interviewer was poorly prepared for the meeting. The editor-in-chief of WDR Iorg Schonenborn thought that he prepared sharp questions, but in fact Putin provided smart counterattacks. Putin actually drove his opponent into a corner. Schonenborn made a mistake saying that the USA had no similar law on controlling activities of foreign NGOs. Russian offshore in Cyprus was not a problem topic for Russian President as well.
Despite the obvious failure of Schonenborn who appeared to be a target for jokes by German bloggers, major German periodicals tried to express sympathy with the journalist, finding mimics of the Russian President “nervous” and stating that “Putin yields” and the journalist “made the autocrat worry.”
For example, Tageszeitung reports that “Putin was nervous like a guilty pupil. It was very important for him to state that the USA have had the law controlling foreign NGO since 1937. His assistants prepared documents confirming the fact. Outsiders would ask: “What has that to do with the US?” Is Russia becoming a super power only due to the comparison?” However, the author of the article doesn’t state the whole truth. The silly reference to the US was made by the German journalist who tried to blame Russia that “there is no such law in the USA.” Russian President only proved that the journalist was wrong. However, numerous comments by German readers confirm that they do not perceive the media's anti-Russian propaganda seriously.
