As part of my honorary posts as co-chair of the German Agribusiness Alliance and Russia spokesman for German agriculture, I was a member of the high-ranking delegation of the Eastern Committee of German Business in 2017 and 2019 in dialogue with President Putin and large parts of the Russian government. Even then, my Ukrainian colleagues and today’s friends massively criticized me for it. However, I was proud to have influenced important regulations and changes in law at the meetings for the Russian and German agricultural economy and for my company. At the time, I had perceived the President as a jovial leader with a high level of expertise and openness to arguments.
It was unimaginable that I shook hands with a beast and a later war criminal there in Sochi. We have been brutally awakened from a dream of friendship with Russia. Today I condemn this President and his war! It is an armed attack on a sovereign state and its people, a clear breach of international law that is bringing untold suffering to the people of Ukraine. Dear friends in Ukraine, you were right from the beginning! Every time I wash my hands, I clean it more vigorously because I always think of Putin’s hand…