German-Russian Friendship Blossoms

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas (left) and Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov shake hands during a joint press conference following their meeting at the Reception House of Russia’s Foreign Ministry. (Sergei Savostyanov\TASS/Getty Images)

 

Germany bows to Russia in negotiations over the Kerch Strait and Azov Sea as dangerous cooperation between the two increases.

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas visited his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, in Moscow on January 18 to discuss, among other things, a new proposal to ensure unimpeded shipping through the Kerch Strait and Azov Sea. After the meeting, Maas flew to Ukraine to inform its leaders of the negotiations. The exclusive discussions between Germany and Russia, excluding Ukraine, reveal the close ties developing between these two powers.

Putin: Nothing Was Wrong With the Soviet Union’s Pact With Nazi Germany

Did he make this statement because Russia has entered, or will soon enter, another secret pact with Germany?

Russian President Vladimir Putin said November 4 that he sees nothing wrong with the Molotov-Ribbentrop non-aggression pact that the Soviet Union made with Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany just days before World War ii broke out.

The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact was a promise of non-belligerence by either party toward the other. Just a week after it was signed, Germany invaded Poland, officially igniting World War II.

“Serious research must show that those were the foreign policy methods then,” Putin said to a group of young historians in Moscow. “The Soviet Union signed a non-aggression treaty with Germany. People say: ‘Ach, that’s bad.’ But what’s bad about that if the Soviet Union didn’t want to fight; what’s bad about it?”