Gauck accused of ‘pouring oil on the fire’ by criticising Russia

German president Joachim Gauck has been accused of "pouring oil on the fire" in Ukraine by criticising Russia at a ceremony to mark the outbreak of the second World War.

Mr Gauck told an audience on Monday in Gdansk, Poland, including the Polish president, that Russia's disregard for the rights of nations "effectively severed its partnership" with Europe.

He said the armed conflict in Ukraine had shattered illusions that “the country of Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky could be a part of Europe”. Whether “partnership and good neighbourly relations” could be restored, he said, depended on Russia respecting sovereign nations’ rights.

Aggressors

In a nod to Russia’s annexation of Crimea and its support for separatists in eastern Ukraine, Mr Gauck added: “History teaches us that territorial concessions often only increase the appetite of aggressors.”

Left Party co-leader Bernd Riexinger accused the German president of making a “first-class presidential misstep” at the event held to recall Nazi Germany’s attack on Poland 75 years previously, which triggered the second World War.

“It shows a lack of historic sensitivity when a German head of state pours oil on the fire of a European conflict on the anniversary of the world war outbreak,” said Mr Riexinger.

“This only thwarts all efforts for a de-escalation of the situation in Ukraine.”

World conflicts

It’s not the first time the Left Party has attacked Germany’s head of state. In June the party criticised him for demanding Germans show greater willingness to intervene in world conflicts rather than “ruling out military intervention from the start”.

Mr Gauck's latest remarks were defended yesterday in Berlin. Social Democratic Party (SPD) deputy leader Ralf Stegner suggested the Left Party leader had "reversed cause and effect" and had "overshot the target if he claimed the president's speech endangered world peace".

In Brussels Elmar Brok, German head of the foreign policy committee in the European Parliament said that Russia "wanted to destroy the peace of an independent country".

"Pussyfooting around has always been understood by aggressors as an open invitation for further action," said Mr Brok of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU).