By Vestnik Kavkaza
In October 2014 a session of the Russian German Civic Forum “St. Petersburg Dialogue” was canceled for the first time in 13 years, on Germany’s initiative. In November the Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel insisted that the forum should be reformed and its leadership should be replaced. Thus, the state intends to interfere in the affairs of civic society organizations which are not critical enough of Russia regarding the events in Ukraine. Experts speak about the importance of maintaining a dialogue between Russia and Western countries and relations between Russia and Germany under the conditions of sanctions.
Mikhail Fedotov, the chairman of the Presidential Council for Development of Civic Society and Human Rights, stressed that the international situation which became a reason for cancellation of the session of the “St. Petersburg Dialogue” should, on the contrary, encourage countries to dialogue, rather than to its cancellation and the creation of a new “iron curtain.” “The more difficult the situation is, the greater the need for dialogue. If we had wonderful intergovernmental relations between Russia and Germany, we could hold the “St. Petersburg Dialogue” in a pub and simply share our views where the weather is better, where girls are prettier. But today the situation is different, it is very tense. And cancellation of the forum and a joint session of the coordination committees is a very bad side. It means that in Germany there are forces which want to build a new “iron curtain.” It is a vicious idea, and our German colleagues in the “St. Petersburg Dialogue” are of the same opinion. We must not build a new iron curtain or a new wall between our nations. We have had enough walls in our history; stop building walls. Let’s build cooperation without walls and borders.”
Andrei Yurov, a member of the Presidential Council for Development of Civil Society and Human Rights, thinks that the situation in Ukraine has led to serious contradictions, not only between the countries, but inside the societies of each of them. “At the moment dialogue is necessary more than ever, as we view many things differently. In Russia different social forces view the situation differently, in Germany different social forces view the situation differently. And in this sense the dialogue means not Russia vs. Germany or Germany vs. Russia, it is a dialogue of a greater number of sides. And under the current conditions it would be important to listen to the positions of various sides.” Yurov thinks that in this case it is necessary to think about options for civic society’s actions: “How can we influence our authorities? What can we do for improvement of the system of universal human rights in Europe? And the Russian-German dialogue could touch on similar things, and today it is more acute than ever.”
According to Andrei Yurov, the Russian and German societies should create platforms for dialogue to compensate for the cancellation of dialogue between the governments, as “very negative processes are going on in Europe, not only between Russia and the EU, but in general, and this is a real threat to security, it is a threat to our economies.”
