In sharp remarks about Moscow’s leadership, Merz said Vladimir Putin and his inner circle are no longer capable of functioning outside a state of war.
Merz gave a wide-ranging interview to Die Rheinpfalz.
The chancellor criticized Germany’s past gas cooperation with Russia.
“That partnership turned into a fatal strategic dependency for us,” Merz said.
He cautioned Europe against harboring illusions about the nature of Russia’s current power structure.
“Russia’s ruling clique will not be able to do without war for the foreseeable future. It will have to keep its war machine running,” he said.
Merz warned that if the war ends, hundreds of thousands of soldiers “accustomed to killing, looting and torture” would return to Russia, making reintegration into civilian life extremely difficult. He said the Kremlin has no plan to manage that process.
“In my view, this war will end only when one of the two sides is exhausted, either militarily or economically,” the chancellor said.
He added that Europe’s strategic goal is to deprive the Russian state of the ability to continue its aggression.
“Reason and humanitarian arguments will not convince Putin. That is the bitter truth,” Merz emphasized.
On the prospects of restoring normal relations with Moscow, Merz struck a skeptical note. He recalled the poisoning of opposition figure Alexey Navalny in a penal colony and suggested that such actions preclude a return to previous forms of dialogue.
“I consider it almost impossible. When I look at this regime and its blind, furious terror, I have little hope,” he said.
Merz also cited a historical line from French-American researcher Astolphe de Custine, who wrote in the 19th century about Russia: “In it, one can see the deepest barbarism alongside the highest civilization.” The chancellor said the observation still holds today, describing the country’s current condition as “the deepest barbarism.”
