Event Highlights: Ruprecht Polenz on the Putin Doctrine: A Danger to Global Security?
On Wednesday, October 1, the Center for the Study of Europe, in collaboration with the Boston Warburg Chapter of the American Council on Germany (ACG), hosted German CDU politician Ruprecht Polenz, who was visiting the US as part of the ACG’s 2014 Dr. Henry A. Kissinger Transatlantic Speaker Series. Polenz is a member of the foreign committee of the German Bundestag’s Committee on Foreign Affairs since 1994 and its chairman since 2005. The focal points of his work are foreign and security policy, with regional emphasis on the Middle East, in particular Iran and Turkey and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Following a visit to Prof. Thomas Berger’s “Europe and International Relations” class, in which he discussed German foreign policy towards Ukraine and Russia, and a rainy tour of Boston, Polenz arrived at BU’s Pardee School of Global Studies for a lunch discussion on the Putin Doctrine and its implications for global security. Boston Warburg Chapter director Marc Redlich welcomed guests on behalf of the ACG, after which Joseph Wippl, Professor of the Practice of International Relations at Boston University, introduced Ruprecht Polenz.
Polenz began his remarks with a discussion of the European Union’s success in transforming Eastern Europe through the promise of membership and its efforts, via its neighborhood policy, to offer partner countries the possibility to participate in EU activities through greater political, security, economic and cultural cooperation. In the beginning, Polenz said, Russia was not opposed to European integration, but in recent years, Russia has opposed any alliances or association agreements with Europe by the countries on its western border. The goal of the Medvedev doctrine, which included provisions for protecting Russian citizens, wherever they might reside (including outside Russia’s borders), was precisely to keep America and Europe from meddling in its “near abroad.”
Commenting on the situation in Ukraine, Polenz stated that the annexation of Crimea was not only a violation of international law but also of several bilateral treaties, including the Budapest Memorandum of 1994, in which Russia promised to uphold Ukraine’s territorial integrity in exchange for the newly independent country giving up its nuclear arsenal, and the Friendship and Coordination Treaty of 1997. The question, he said, is how to respond – we don’t want a military confrontation with a nuclear armed Russia. But, he said, we have to make sure that our reluctance to engage militarily is not understood in Russia as “eat as much as you can,” referring to the poster we created to advertise the event.
Polenz acknowledged precedents for break up, citing examples of Czechoslovakia and Serbia-Montenegro, but said that the Crimea was not comparable. The transfer of Crimea to Ukraine by Khrushchev in 1954 was indeed intended to fortify Soviet control over the region, already home to a large Russian majority. But, Polenz argued, this late comer status does not mean they do not feel “Ukrainian,” pointing out that a small majority of Crimean residents voted for independence in 1992. We have to, he said during the question and answer session, accept the borders as internationally drawn, without reference to history.
As for what can we do to halt Russian aggression, Polenz alluded to the first rule of politics, which is not to worsen the situation. He argued in favor of a targeted policy, one in which conflict and cooperation (in Iran, Syria, etc.) can exist simultaneously. He noted that sanctions appear to be working – Russia’s threats to seize property of foreign investors has resulted in widespread capital flow and currency devaluation. He did say – echoing President Obama’s speech in Talinn on the eve of last month’s NATO summit in Wales – that we have to draw a military line at the eastern border of NATO.
Polenz cited Putin’s fears of a “Russian Maidan” as a driving force behind Russian aggression. But he was clear to lay some of the blame with Ukraine, who made a difficult choice after independence in 1991 to remain mired in Soviet-era corruption, rather than embarking on political and economic reforms.
This event took place as part of the American Council on Germany’s Dr. Henry A. Kissinger Transatlantic Speaker Program at the Warburg Chapters made possible by a generous grant from the Robert Bosch Foundation. This speaker series will bring 15 high level German speakers to the United States in 2014 to speak at the ACG Eric M. Warburg Chapters across the country on important issues pertaining to the German-American and transatlantic partnerships.