Speaking in what he called “the language of Goethe, Schiller and Kant,” President Putin addressed the German Parliament on Sept. 25, 2001. “Russia is a friendly European nation,” he declared.
The Russian leader, elected the previous year after a meteoric rise from obscurity, went on to describe “democratic rights and freedoms” as the “key goal of Russia’s domestic policy.” Members of the Bundestag gave a standing ovation, moved by the reconciliation Mr. Putin seemed to embody in a city, Berlin, that long symbolized division between the West and the totalitarian Soviet world.
Norbert Röttgen, a center-right representative, was among those who rose to their feet. “Putin captured us,” he said. “The voice was quite soft, in German, a voice that tempts you to believe what is said to you."
Today, all togetherness shredded, Ukraine burns, bludgeoned by the invading army Mr. Putin sent to prove his conviction that Ukrainian nationhood is a myth.
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