"Civil society goes mobile"
Report Maximilaneum round on 19.09.2022.
Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine and accompanying "hybrid" warfare against the West is significantly influencing politics and the economy. What can we do to counter this?
Under the motto "Civil society mobilizes", the OstWestWirtschaftsForum Bayern met in a Maximilaneum round on September 19 at the Hofbräukeller in Munich.
As guests we could welcome among others as representative of the Ukrainian Consulate General in Munich Mr. Consul Dmytro Shevchenko, from the Consulate General of the Republic of Kazakhstan Mr. Vice Consul Adil Kuatov, Dr. Christiane Schuchart from the Committee on Eastern European Economic Relations and the Chairwoman of the Bavarian Eastern Society BOG, Mrs. Iris Trübswetter,.as well as Mrs. Mirjam Zwingli, board member of the WCR Economic Club Russia.
President Eberhard Sinner emphasized in his initiative speech the importance of civil society and its effectiveness. Especially in the recent history there are good examples for this, first of all the German reunification. However, there is no such thing as a Russian civil society; Putin is not only waging war in Ukraine, but also against his own people. Any expression of opinion that does not conform to the Kremlin's dictates is punished draconically. Since the war began, it has become apparent that talks are increasingly difficult, even with private contacts.
President Sinner explained that the purpose of this Maximilaneum meeting was to discuss in particular, in open discussion, what possibilities OWWF Bavaria has to maintain existing contacts and to prevent a complete severing of ties.
A presentation accompanied his talk (German).
In his contribution to the discussion, Consul Shevchenko emphasized the dramatic situation in Ukraine and expressed his lack of understanding about "new bridges" to Russia. In his view, cooperation with Russia or the Russian people is not possible at any level, including civilian. President Sinner stated that we do not want to build new economic bridges or "cooperate" with Russia, but try to act in favor of truth on our Russian contacts.
As the debate continued, it became clear once again that there can be neither an economic nor a political "new start" with a Russia under Putin's rule.
A discussion ensued about the effectiveness of Western sanctions. Dr. Schuchart explained that Russia is trying to circumvent the current tough economic sanctions by grey imports from countries like Turkey, Iran, India and China. This is shown by increasing import figures from these countries. Especially electronic devices, but also other goods are thus still available in Russia, but in smaller quantities and at significantly higher prices.
All present agreed that these sanctions are both a political and diplomatic necessity and must be thought of in the long term.
In the course of the event, it became clear that while there is absolute agreement on a higher level to condemn the Russian war of aggression that has taken place by breaking and negating international law, to support Ukraine and to call on Russia to leave all Ukrainian territories, including Crimea.
There will be no silver bullet on how to achieve this. Vice President Hermann Pönisch has decades of experience with Russia. In his opinion, any attempts at a negotiated solution are currently out of the question. One would have to negotiate with someone who has broken all treaties since the Helsinki negotiations, even those signed by his own hand. What value would such "solutions" have? At the moment, therefore, the only option is to support Ukraine in its struggle against the aggressor by all possible means.
"We are participants in the war" says Pönisch, "not because we want to be, but because Putin has declared war on us. We have to take note of this, so it is also forbidden to weigh whether the sanctions are hurting us more than Russia.
President Eberhard Sinner led the discussion back to the topic: how could civil society get involved? He referred to the approximately 100 twinning arrangements between German and Russian cities alone. In addition, there are countless international partnerships. Incidentally, the first twinning was agreed in 1944 between Coventry and what was then Stalingrad. Besides Hiroshima, the German cities of Chemnitz and Cologne are also among the city partners of Volgograd.
Sinner promoted an initiative of the twinning association to adopt a joint proclamation: "No bombs on cities".
A letter to this effect has been sent in the meantime to the President of the German Association of Cities, the Lord Mayor of the City of Münster, Mr. Lewe.
