Gregor Gysi
Former head of the LinksPartei Gregor Gysi
In an interview with watson.ch, the former head of the Linkspartei Gregor Gysi promotes a rapprochement between Germany and Russia. "I consider the sanctions as a failure," he replied to a question about Germany's role in the Ukraine crisis.

The German media has reported extensively on the pro-Russian course of the national conservative AfD party. Leading AfD politicians like Alexander Gauland regularly promote a German-Russian rapprochement.

But the AfD is not alone in this sentiment. More and more politicians of the Left Party criticize Germany's current Russia policy: Wolfgang Gehrke, Sahra Wagenknecht, Bernd Riexinger. Now Gregor Gysi also chimes in.

Trump and Putin

In the interview, Gysi criticizes the plans of the designated US President Donald Trump to build a wall on the Mexican border. The former head of the Links Party also asserts that the US must preserve health insurance and the good relationship with Iran.

However, he also sees positive sides to Trump: "The chemistry between him and Putin will be better. This means that the US and Russia could more easily find a compromise to solve the Ukraine crisis."

Right-wing populism in Europe

Gysi, comparing the rising conservatism in Europe with the 1930s, said: "People are fed up with the political establishment." Putin initially did not want to communicate with national conservative parties, but "with the EU." George W. Bush had "screwed this up" with NATO's approach to the east.

Russia as a great power

It was a "bad mistake" by Barack Obama to describe Russia as a regional power: "We must accept Russia as a great power," said Gysi. He also considers the European sanctions policy against Russia to be wrong - "we do not want any third world war."

Gysi also speaks about German-Russian economic relations. Above all "medium-sized enterprises in Germany" would suffer from the sanctions. "Economically, Germany is Russia's second-largest trading partner," he added.