What this book is – and what it is not

This book is not an indictment. It is a record. A dissecting look back at decisions, speeches, treaties, protocols, reactions. Everything is documented. Everything can be read.

Nor is it a polemic. Where the facts speak, pathos is silent. But it is not a neutral report either. For neutrality, where human dignity is at stake, is not a virtue – it is a betrayal of the Enlightenment.

The architecture of deception

Germany's policy toward Russia over the past 25 years can be described as a pipeline—not just made of steel, but of decisions:

2001: Putin's speech to the Bundestag – the beginning of an illusion

2004: Schröder calls him a "flawless democrat"

2007: Putin threatens in Munich – Germany remains silent

2008: War in Georgia – and Nord Stream is built anyway

2014: Annexation of Crimea – and Nord Stream 2 is approved

2022: War of aggression against Ukraine – and some remain silent

Every stage is documented, every decision can be analyzed.

Who bears responsibility?

It does not lie with any one individual. It belongs to a system that turned cowardice into loyalty and economic opportunism into moral argument.

A system that was supported by democratically elected actors – with open eyes but closed files.

The question for all of us

Why was this policy able to persist for so long? Why did the media, parliament, and the public look away for so long? Was it just economic calculation? Or is there a deeper failure behind it – a failure of political judgment, of historical sensitivity, of responsibility toward future generations?