Dmitry PHILIPPOVYKH
Professor Ph D (History)
Eintracht das Kleine mehrt, Zwietracht das Grosse verheert (In union the smallest thrive, in discord the biggest are destroyed)
An old German saying
In the run-up to the early elections to the German Bundestag set for September 18, 2005, there were more than enough forecasts that "either opposition leader Angela Merkel would head a new government or Gerhard Schroder would retain his post as the German Chancellor". Yet Alexander Rahr, Program Director of the Koerber Analytical Center for Russian and CIS Affairs, an institution of the German Council on Foreign Relations, chose a more preferable approach to the matter, focusing in his analytical report on one key issue: "What are basically the future areas of common
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nterest in German-Russian relations, and what are the instruments that may be used in addressing common problems for both countries?". Let us follow the lead, the only difference being that we do not believe that prospects of Russian-German cooperation depend upon results of the September 2005 elections.
Russian-German relations in the recent past have been fairly successful, which allows the countries to face future with optimism. On the international arena, Germany, being a member of a range of international organizations, has in recent years traditionally lobbied Russia's interests in them. Thus Gerhard Schroder backed Russia up in the G8, in negotiations between Russia and the World Trade Organization, and in the Paris Club.
Politically, the German Chancellor and the Russian President have always strived to draw the two countries closer. In the past five years, the scope of Russia's high-level contacts with Germany has been unmatched. These included numerous meetings, government consultations, and the "St. Petersburg dialogue" initiated by Gerhard Schroder and Vladimir Putin in order to bring the elites of both countries together.
The strong and mutually advantageous Russian-German relatio ...
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