Munich Security Conference chief: To revive ties with Germany, Russia needs 'de-Putinization'

By Timo Kirez

BERLIN (AA) - Russia needs "de-Putinization" before the revival of relations with Germany, according to the head of the Munich Security Conference, which is set to start Friday.

"I use the term de-Putinization because this country is totally focused on (Russian President Vladimir) Putin," Germany’s former UN Ambassador Christoph Heusgen told Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland on Thursday.

The Kremlin chief is the ruler who makes all the decisions, Heusgen added. The term is borrowed from the denazification by the Allies after Germany's defeat in World War II and the collapse of the Third Reich.

The senior German diplomat also chose a similar formulation in his recently published book Leadership and Responsibility.

In the book, Heusgen wrote that there could be a new beginning with Moscow "only with a different government in Moscow, one that acts on the basis of international law and is prepared to carry out at home something like the 'denazification' that took place in Germany at the time."

The Munich Security Conference lasts through Sunday in the Bavarian city. It is the first security conference since the military escalation in Ukraine nearly a year ago, last Feb. 24.

Participants from Ukraine include Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba. Russia is not invited. Heusgen gave as his reason that Moscow had committed a "breach of civilization" with the war in Ukraine.​​​​​​​