German opposition leader claims Scholz fears Putin

The chancellor is not doing enough to help Kiev, Friedrich Merz of the CDU party has said

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is supposedly not doing enough to support Kiev in its ongoing conflict with Moscow because he’s afraid of Russian President Vladimir Putin, the head of the country’s biggest opposition party claimed in an interview aired on Sunday.

Scholz is “the only one standing in the way” of supplying Ukraine with more powerful weapons, including the long-range Taurus missiles, Friedrich Merz, who leads the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU), told German broadcaster ARD.

Merz, who has long been an ardent supporter of more active assistance to Kiev and a tougher stance on Russia, maintained that providing Ukraine with Taurus would be a part of Germany’s “effective deterrence.” 

Scholz has repeatedly argued that the use of such weapons by the Ukrainian military would require tighter control from Berlin and the presence of German specialists on the ground. He has also maintained that he would not allow the nation’s troops to become directly involved in the Ukraine conflict.

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On Sunday, Merz stated that “the delivery of Taurus would be anything but joining the conflict.” The politician then claimed that “deterrence has always been a threat” and it is a potential aggressor that “must be afraid of us.”

“If we in the West are afraid to defend ourselves, then Putin has already won this war against us all by half,” Merz argued. Scholz “is obviously afraid. And fear is a bad adviser,” he said, adding that this was not just “opinion but rather a conviction.” The politician is expected to be his party’s candidate for chancellor at next year’s federal elections and could be one of Scholz’s major rivals, if the incumbent leader also decides to run.

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Earlier in October, the German chancellor re-affirmed his position on Taurus missiles, saying that he did not “deem this the right supply.” He also said that Berlin was ready to negotiate peace in Ukraine with Moscow.

Germany is the second-biggest donor of military aid to Ukraine, totaling over €10 billion ($11.19 billion) from January 2022 to June 2024, according to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy.

Moscow has repeatedly warned that Western military aid to Kiev drags NATO ever closer to direct involvement in the conflict. This summer Vladimir Putin said that Western support for Ukrainian strikes deep into Russian territory would be a significant escalation, and one that could spark an “asymmetric” response.

Last month, the Russian president also ordered changes to the nation’s nuclear doctrine that would allow a nuclear response in case of a conventional attack by a non-nuclear state that is backed by a nuclear state.