"Germany's Russia-Policy is not Proactive Enough"

Leaders from the Group of Eight countries -- Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States -- are meeting July 15-17 in St. Petersburg. Energy security and nuclear proliferation, particularly wiht regard to Iran and North Korea, will top the agenda.

DW-WORLD.DE: The Group of Seven was founded as a club for leading industrial democratic states. Do you think that Russia fits into this group?

Harald Leibrecht: The current political development in Russia gives cause for concern. We continually hear about human rights violations, restrictions on press freedom and a throwback to political centralism.

When Russia became a member of the G7, there was great hope that this country would undergo positive political developments. Under Putin, this hope has been crushed.

I can hardly believe that today's Russia could become a G8 member. Only a politically and economically stable Russia can be an asset to both the West and the G8.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier recently applauded internal developments in Russia. Andreas Schockenhoff, the government's Russian policy expert adopted an oppositional stance to Putin at the alternative G8 conference. What is your view on Germany's Russia-policy?

It seems to me that the government doesn't really know how it should continue dealing with Russia. They're still making the same mistake that was made when Schröder was in office. His Russia policy was always criticized by the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). It's a reactive, not proactive approach.

There simply isn't any identifiable political strategy. This was apparent in the last German-Russian government meetings. Economic relations are great -- and the rest? No comment.

What are your expectations for the G8 Summit in St. Petersburg?

I hope very much, of course, that there will be a push for concrete results on issues like Iran, North Korea and energy security.

An Iran that possesses atomic weapons would be an uncontrollable threat to us all. That's why we have to make it utterly clear to the heads of state at the G8 Summit that Iran must permanently abandon the nuclear fuel cycle that could produce plutonium for weapons.

The leading G8 countries are also powerful members of the UN Security Council, which means this conference has to send Iran an unambiguous signal.

The other issues that President Putin emphasized for this year's summit -- education and the fight against infectious diseases -- absolutely deserve stronger attention and more unified involvement from the large industrial nations.