Merkel Wags Finger at Putin

Apparently German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s patience with Vladimir Putin is wearing thin. In a speech before parliament, Merkel declared in her most strident language yet that his actions could lead to “catastrophe.” “We would not only see it, also as neighbors of Russia, as a threat. And it would not only change the European Union’s relationship with Russia. No, this would also cause massive damage to Russia, economically and politically,” she declared. She also said her attempts to work with Putin have failed, and that she is “determined” to enact punishing measures if it becomes unavoidable. She also was unequivocal that Crimea cannot separate from Ukraine, and showed her disdain for the Russian leader’s attempt to reignite “a conflict about spheres of influence and territorial claims that we know from the 19th- or 20th-century, but thought were a thing of the past.”