Russian President Vladimir Putin answers a media question about the recent German elections, the rise of the Alternative for Germany (AfD), and the broader political trends unfolding across Europe. Putin discusses what he describes as systemic political, security and economic mistakes by Western countries, including NATO’s eastward expansion, the Ukraine conflict and Europe’s energy policy. He also addresses Europe’s gas prices, Germany’s energy situation, and the legacy of former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl’s approach to relations with Russia.

New Delhi, September 11: Question: You’ve spoken a lot about the BRICS nations today. I have a question about a country that may be farther from here, but is likely closer to home for you – Germany. As is well known, elections were recently held in Saxony, and Alternative for Germany won by a wide margin. It looks as though something similar is brewing in Pomerania. What is your take on this?

Answer: I do not wish to, nor will I, comment on domestic political developments taking place, in this case, in the Federal Republic. Having said that, there is nevertheless something to be said on the matter – and here is why. I believe that everything currently unfolding across Europe as a whole is the product of systemic errors made by the so-called West – or, more accurately, the West's globalists – in politics, security, and the economy.

Everyone makes mistakes. We have made plenty of mistakes, as has the rest of the world. But the problem for the globalist West is that after the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union, they felt atop Mount Olympus and evidently believed that: a) anything was permitted to them, and b) they were incapable of ever making mistakes.

And these errors began to compound, snowballing over time. Well, in the realm of security, it is obvious what was going on. It was an attempt to finish off the Russian Federation. First using terrorists and separatists in the Caucasus, then using other tools, and now through the neo-Nazi regime in Ukraine. This has not stopped. At one point, they included us in the G8. But as I've already pointed out, it was never a full membership.

We saw that perfectly well. I saw all of it perfectly well. On the surface, all the right words were being spoken. But in practice, I repeat, they were directly supporting separatism in the Caucasus, trying to finish dismantling Russia. That is a fact. And today's crisis in Ukraine was also provoked by them. These are constant, ongoing forms of pressure.

After all, we said many times that the eastward expansion of NATO was unacceptable to us. Eventually, they reached Ukraine. They removed President Yanukovych from power through a coup d'état. Now, I am not rendering judgment here on President Yanukovych's performance. There were probably plenty of mistakes, and there were likely grounds for public discontent. But he was against Ukraine joining NATO. As soon as they changed the regime through a bloody coup, I repeat, they immediately made it their goal to drag Ukraine into NATO.

And that, in the end, was the actual root cause of today's tragic events in Ukraine. They, the Western globalist elites, are to blame for this, even though they constantly try to pin it on us. What about the economy? Right now, the most pressing topic is, of course, energy. This falls under another category of mistakes – the economic realm. Well, how many times did we speak with them about the need to preserve the established relationships we had in energy?

After all, we were supplying that same gas to Europe at $150. At $150, well, maybe $180 per thousand cubic meters. "That's too expensive," they told us, "we need to transition to market pricing." But what is market pricing? Our prices were pegged. And even now under long-term contracts we sell pegged – to the cost of oil and petroleum products, which is set by the market.

But no, they insisted that prices must be formed on the exchange. We warned them: gas is not a standard commodity – at least, not a classic commodity – it won't work, and your prices will only go up. Well, here's your rude awakening: it's a thousand dollars or euros over there right now. And it might go higher still.

What does exchange-based gas pricing in Europe actually mean? Prices are driven not by energy producers, but by market speculators. Look at Germany right now. Their target, if I recall, is to fill their gas storage facilities to just 70%, merely 70%. Whether they fill them or not remains to be seen. In the Netherlands, the situation is even worse. Why? Because the people trading on the exchange aren't thinking about the technical condition of those storage facilities, nor are they thinking about physical volumes. They think it's more profitable today to pull gas from storage that was bought at lower prices, and as for tomorrow – we'll see what happens.

Well, that will lead to prices hitting 1,500 instead of 1,000. That is another mistake, yet another one in the economic domain. I've heard people in Germany – members of the current government – saying that they are adhering to the course set by past German leadership, including frequent mentions of Helmut Kohl's name. I knew Kohl personally. I can state unequivocally: he did not hold the views currently embraced by the leadership of the CDU. He simply did not. I spoke with him when he was still Chancellor, and after he left office, he came to visit us.

He believed that the future of Europe and the Federal Republic could only be secured if there were close, good-neighborly, allied relations with Russia. He used to say that we had to complement each other. Only then could European civilization preserve itself as an independent center of intellectual and humanitarian power, with all the resulting benefits for politics and the economy. That is what Mr. Kohl said to me.

But today’s political elites in Europe hold a very different view. Today, they are spooking their populations with a fictitious Russian threat, claiming it traces back to the Soviet era. But there is no such threat, and there never was. We aren't threatening European countries, nor do we intend to. Why on earth would we? No one even pauses to consider that we have zero cause for conflict with Europe.

All matters were settled following the results of the Second World War. And everything that followed, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, was carried out with the consent of the Russian Federation as the successor state to the Soviet Union. Anything that violates those agreements runs counter to our interests and breaches the fundamental principles of international law and the UN Charter. That is the heart of the matter.

Yet they insist on doing precisely that – demanding changes. What kind of changes? Do they want to revise the outcome of the Second World War? Where are they pushing their own people right now? Toward a war with the Russian Federation? Now they are openly discussing sending troops into Ukrainian territory. That means war with Russia. And I believe the citizens of European countries see exactly what is going on. That, it seems to me, is precisely what underpins the recent election outcomes in the Federal Republic and the broader political trends sweeping across Europe today.