Former German chancellor Angela Merkel says she wanted to set up a European format for talks involving French President Emmanuel Macron and Russian President Vladimir Putin in order to reach a solution to the tensions building in Ukraine before she left office.
Speaking to Der Spiegel magazine in remarks released on Thursday, Merkel said she had tried to create the format in the summer of 2021. "But I no longer had the authority to push it through, because everyone knew after all: she will be gone in the autumn."
Merkel had long indicated she would leave office after the September elections in Germany. The process needed to form a coalition meant that the final handover took place in early December. Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, a little over two months later.
In August last year, Merkel travelled to Moscow on her last official visit to the Russian capital. Describing the meeting, she told Der Spiegel: "The feeling was entirely clear. 'As far as power politics is concerned, you're finished.' For Putin, only power counts."
Merkel had been a driver of the Normandy Format set up in mid-2014 between Germany, France, Russia and Ukraine following the Russian annexation of Crimea and its incursion into eastern Ukraine in February of that year. The Minsk agreements followed in late 2014 and early 2015 but were never fully implemented.
The former chancellor has come under fire since leaving office for allowing Germany to become over-reliant on Russian energy supplies, gas in particular.
Before leaving office, her government came under strong pressure from allies, the United States in particular, not to proceed with the construction of a second pipeline under the Baltic Sea, but she went ahead anyway. That pipeline project was shelved as hostilities broke out in February.
