"Krone" commentary

Get Europe ready for defense!

Analyzed for the "Krone": foreign policy expert Kurt Seinitz

(Bild: stock.adobe.com, Krone KREATIV)

Imagine you are a guest at the traditional Munich Security Conference, which is also about your husband in Putin's prison camp, and it is whispered in your ear: "It has just been reported: He's dead!" Who would ever want to experience such a situation?

Yulia Navalnaya took to the podium and pledged to continue the fight: "Putin and his regime will still be held accountable for their crimes!" That's what you call courage - as an encouragement for Europe.

Europe's ability to defend itself was the focus of the conference of the free world's top political security leaders as rarely before. There were two invisible elephants in the room threatening Europe: Trump with his destructive work in NATO and Putin, who recalled the brutal character of his regime with the news of Navalny's death.

President Zelenskyi had to admit that the war is not going well for Ukraine at the moment. He identifies external influences and warns of the incalculable consequences of the "artificial weapons deficit" and the "self-weakening" of the West.

"Dictators don't take a break!" warns Selensky. "How long will the world allow Russia to act the way it does? Putin will go as far as he is allowed. If Ukraine is left alone, you'll see what happens: Russia will first destroy us, then the Baltics, then Poland."

The news of Navalny's death shocks the president. He reacted with harsh words: "Putin is no longer a legitimate leader. He is a monster."

Zelensky invites Trump to a joint visit to the front, but at the same time lets it be known that he does not expect the isolationist to come to Ukraine.

Making Europe ready to defend itself resounded in almost every contribution to the discussion: Firstly, Navalny's death at the hands of the Putin regime shows who we are dealing with, and secondly, the USA's guarantee of protection can no longer be relied upon.

EU Commission President von der Leyen has hinted that the next EU authority will have a Commissioner for Defense. Europe is therefore on the way to waking up and, of necessity, standing on its own two feet. (This will also be interesting for Austria).

It obviously took the double pressure from Putin and Trump for Europe to realize how much it has been beaten. Ukraine is more than ever a question of European security. Putin's Russia wants to become a great empire again and is haunted by the old saying: "Without Ukraine, Russia is not an empire". The USA is (still) an empire and forgets that it is only an empire if it exerts influence on both opposite coasts: Asia and Europe. If they give up Europe, they are no longer an empire.