Three journalists of the German newspaper Die Zeit published a rather ridiculous article trying to imply that this blogger and writer, the Greek Defense and Foreign Ministers and the composer and resistant Mikis Theodorakis are acting somehow under the "influence" of Russian ideologues. We had to address the following letter to the newspaper.
To the Chefredacteur of Die Zeit on Line
Mr. Giovanni di Lorenzo
Dear Sir,
On Friday, 7th of February your reporter Zacharias
Zacharakis send me a very unpolite, if not provocative and insulting e-mail, telling
me he was investigating my relations with a Russian diplomat and asking me if I
was a friend of him, what kind of a friend I was and if my friendship has
influenced my writing! At the end, he even put an ultimatum asking me to answer
by 1.00 next day!
Next day I was indeed preparing a letter to you, protesting for the
style of this individual and wondering if his ways represent the journalistic
and even simple politeness standards of Die Zeit, when I was, for a
second time, badly surprised by an article he and two other journalists have
signed and published in the Online edition of your newspaper.
I am not a reader of German press but I had the impression that Die
Zeit was a serious German newspaper, not one confusing (bad quality)
police literature with journalism or attempting what we call character assassination (I think rufmord is the right word in German).
I thought, probably wrongly, that it was a newspaper wishing to inform its
readers, not to misinform them with cold war amalgams, created with the help of
massive use of distortions, misinterpretations and inaccuracies, as well as
personal data, real or fake. All of it with an obvious aim, that is to attack
the newly elected Greek government and its supposed relations with Russia. And
also to “terrorize” somehow anybody who is for dialogue and good relations with
Russia.
The obvious and quite crazy implication of the article is that a part,
at least, of the Greek government parties is acting somehow under some kind of malicious
influence of Russian “ideologues” and “oligarchs”. They are cough, as the title
of the article suggests, in “a web of Russian ideologues”. So, not only Greeks
have elected two bad parties in power, important people in those parties are
flirting now, under the malign influence of Moscow, with the equally bad entity
of Putin’s Russia. And they are doing this without asking for the permission of
Berlin authorities.
This is a quite paranoiac way of looking into what is happening into
Greece and its international relations. It is ridiculous to present all political
and social trends as a result of conspiracies. Conspiracies do exist (sometimes
even leading to bad journalism). But even when they exist, they can succeed
only if there is objective basis for them to succeed.
But let me be more precise, at least as far as it concerns me. The
authors of the article claim that I am a kind of “link” between SYRIZA and
Moscow. But they don’t provide any hint to substantiate such a claim.
By the way, there is nothing bad about having contacts between
different political entities and countries. Everybody in the world is doing
this. Why it should be forbidden to Greeks and Russians? But in this case
simply your reporters are wrong. I ‘m not the link they are looking for. They
have first to find him, if he exists, and then name him, not the other way
round.
As for the claim of your imaginative authors that I am an “important
ideologue” of SYRIZA, I have to thank them for the promotion. I hope the leadership
of SYRIZA will take notice and will offer me a post corresponding to my
importance.
Trying to create from scratch all this story, the article claims that I
am a regular contributor of the newspaper Avghi, which again is
connected with SYRIZA. It is true that this newspaper has probably published
three or four articles of me during the last two years. You will agree that
this hardly makes me a “regular contributor”.
Again there is nothing bad about being a regular contributor to Avghi.
I even proposed some time ago to its director to become such. He answered me
that he would like it but the financial situation of the newspaper does not
permit it. Again, your authors, though this unimportant detail, show us
inadvertently the haste with which they have tried to assemble the “proofs” of
a prefabricated “accusation”.
Then the article goes on assigning me with an even greater role. The
authors claim that in a mail I send to a Russian diplomat I referred to
cooperation proposals made by Mr. Kammenos to SYRIZA through me in October 2014.
Not only there is not such a mail, it could not even exist. Mr. Kammenos and
Mr. Tsipras are in close direct contact since the end of 2011, when both
opposed in the parliament the agreements on the restructuring of Greek debt and
the substitution of Greek law by English colonial law in matters connected with
the debt. According to my journalistic information, they were even ready to
form a government back in 2012, in case SYRIZA would win the elections of that
year.
Kammenos and Tsipras had established their personal contacts and
cooperation long before the time of the supposed email and they did not need
mine or anybody else’s help to achieve such a goal. I am afraid your reporters
suffer a kind of paranoia, searching everywhere for suspicious links. They
would be better advised to study the already well known and published information.
The two politicians and their parties came closer not because of any kind of
mysterious “conspiracy” or with the help of journalists communicating with
Russian diplomats, but rather for the simple reason they both share a
fundamental opposition to the policies imposed to Greece and they need each
other to get the necessary parliamentary majority to form a government.
There is even worse. It seems that I took and published an interview
with Russian geopolitician Dugin. So what? Mr. Brzezinksi or Mr. Fukuyama for
instance also debated publicly or privately with Mr. Dugin. Are you going to
investigate also their relations with Moscow networks? What is permitted to US
citizens is not permitted to Greek citizens?
As far as I know the exchange of ideas with Russians is not yet in the
sanctions list. And to tell you the truth I believe extremely important to
sustain a serious dialogue with all political and “ideological” spectrum in
Russia. Dialogue does not necessarily mean agreement. And such a dialogue and
even cooperation, where it is possible, with Russians is extremely important
not only for Greeks but also for Germans and all Europeans. I strongly believe European
intellectuals, journalists, politicians should discuss and cooperate with their
Russian counterparts in order to reverse the extremely dangerous course towards
a Cold, if not Hot war we witnessed during last year. The alternative to
dialogue, talk, cooperation between Europe and Russia exists. It is War.
I do believe also that journalists from Western Europe, Russia and Ukraine should also cooperate in
reversing the climate of hysteria and one-sided (mis)information about events
in Ukraine, in order to provide the public with the means to make its own balanced
judgments. If I am not mistaken, it was the editor of Handelsblatt, who had
last summer the courage to write an article comparing the atmosphere created by
German media around Ukraine to the atmosphere dominating Germany in the
beginning of the First World War. I hope you will agree that the last thing
Europe needs is to repeat its history.
But there is also here a question of principle. As an independent
journalist and as a free person I am taking interviews, I keep contacts, I
exchange opinions with anybody I wish and I will continue to do so. I don’t
have to apologize for this or ask the permission of your journalists to do it. This
is my job and my pleasure. German newspapers like Handelsblatt have
asked sometimes for my articles on Greece, I was often interviewed by numerous
media of France, Russia, USA etc., I cooperated for many years with Deutsche
Welle. I had very interesting, analytical talks with the previous German
ambassador in Athens about the Greek crisis. I remember even a long talk with
him, in the compound of the Russian embassy, during a reception in February
2013. At some point Mr. Tsipras himself also joined us. Maybe your reporters
should investigate not only the “Russian connection”, but also a possible “German
extension”?
I am supporting for a long time, and I have never hidden it, the development
of a strong Greek-Russian partnership. I believe by the way the same about
German-Russian relations. I think for instance that projects like the
Nordstream pipeline are very important and I don’t see why everything was done
to cancel the analogous Southstream project through Bulgaria and Greece. I am
also wondering if whoever ignited first the fire in Ukraine was not also trying
to destroy relations between Berlin and Moscow.
Strong Greek-Russian and strong German-Russian relations are foundations
for an equally strong Europe-Russia partnership. I consider such a partnership
of fundamental importance for Europe’s stability, prosperity and autonomy.
Russia in fact is part of Europe, even if it followed a quite separate path
during part of its history.
You may agree or disagree with such ideas. But it is completely
ridiculous to imply they are formed as a result of contacts with Russian
diplomats or intellectuals! I am writing on international affairs and Greek
foreign policy since many years, my books and articles are easily available (by
the way criticizing also Russian policy when I feel I have to). My ideas were
formed much before Putin comes to power or Dugin becomes known and I meet him
personally. It is true that I follow with great interest ideas coming out of
Russia and what Russians do say, but I don’t need any Russian “ideologue” to
have an opinion on Greek-Russian and Europe-Russia relations. The policy and
ideas of Charles de Gaulle, Jacques Chirac, Dominique de Villepin, of your
Chancellors Willy Brandt and Helmut Schmidt, of Greek revolutionaries of the 19th
century, to mention just a few, provide me with a more than sufficient source
of inspiration.
But again what is the “counter-proposal”? To begin a new cold, or
probably hot war in the heart of Europe, accusing Russia of doing (after
provocation) what we did in Kosovo? Do we need a kind of Vietnam in Ukraine?
What is the purpose of sanctions which, all relevant historic experience proves,
fail to produce the results supposedly shown, but empoison international
relations? As Serge Halimi, director of Le Monde Diplomatique recently
asked in an article, are we going to wait again more than half a century, as
North Americans did with Cuba, to admit and correct such a mistake?
It is also mentioned in your article that I gave an interview to Mr.
Dugin. I don’t think again there is something strange or bad in that. He asked
me, I gave him. I give interviews to anybody from abroad asking for them. I
consider this even a moral obligation for me, because there is a huge need to
inform properly the world public opinion about what and why is happening in
Greece. The tragic state of nowadays Greece is not due, only or mainly, to its quite
serious internal problems, but also, and mainly, to the program imposed on it
in 2010 and then 2011 in order to “save” it. The “therapy”, in the case of
Greece has proven much worse than the “illness”. As for the program itself it is
full of quite colonial clauses, unacceptable in today’s Europe.
I believe Europeans we have taken a wrong course and such a course
cannot but affect also deeply our own democracies. This is what we have seen unfortunately
in the massive, hysterical and misleading campaign against Greece from a big
part of German media in 2009-10, or in the equally massive distortions of
reality in the covering by European main stream media of the Ukrainian crisis. The
article you published inadvertently provides us with a good example of the very
real risk of returning to the Stasi and Mac Carthy years, where all principles
and the very notion of the truth were sacrificed to the goals of the Cold War.
Simply the word “Russia” and “Russians” seem to have replaced now the words “communism”
and communists”. Any contact with them seems to be a source of suspicion and
accusation.
By the way, you may like or dislike Putin’s Russia or SYRIZA in Greece.
But in both cases, if we wish to be honest and serious, we should admit that
both phenomena are, to a large extent, the result of our, mainstream western
policies. I remember Russia being the more pro-western country in the world in
1990. They applied all the IMF ideas – the same imposed on Greece now – and
they were ruined economically and socially. They accepted German reunification,
they dissolved at their own initiative their economic-military alliance and even
USSR itself. As a result they saw NATO advancing well into ex-soviet territory
and USA denouncing the ABM Treaty and increasing dramatically military
spending.
The same goes for Greece. The program applied supposedly to help it, in
reality it did save the interests of its private creditors, at the cost of
destroying literally a European country, member of the EU. Greece has been put
in the same situation as Germany in the thirties. You were then under the external
pressure of the enormous war reparations, as Greece is now under the external
pressure of an enormous and growing debt which obviously cannot serve. Between
1930 and 1933 Chancellor Bruenning has applied the very same economic policy
that troika (EU, ECB, IMF) is applying now to Greece.
The result is a drop of more than 25% of Greek GDP since 2010, the
skyrocketing of unemployment, the destruction of Greek pension funds and health
system, a massive braindrain, not to speak about the enormous moral, social
cost which nobody can count in numbers, but which is probably the biggest loss
of these years. The program provoked one of the biggest economic and social
catastrophes in modern economic history. What it has achieved in return? A rise
of the debt from 120% to 180% of GDP and the drop in competitiveness of the
Greek economy! As happened previously with Weimar Republic, this political and
social catastrophe is laying the grounds for the destruction of the old
political system. This is exactly what we witnessed these days in Greece. And
on a European level, we have witnessed the great crisis of 2008, due to the
wrongdoings of the financial sector, finally transformed into a political and
financial “fight” between European nations.
The long term economic, political and geopolitical results of the
insistence to the Greek program risk to prove terrible for Greece, Germany and
Europe. I don’t know if your government has the force to try to crash
economically Greece. But I am sure it will not have the capacity to avoid an enormous
political fall-out as a result. This is why, I think Germans should see the
victory of SYRIZA not so much as a problem, but rather as an opportunity to
operate the big correction needed.
If we don’t stop such an
infernal spiral now, I am afraid it may finish by destroying, among other
things, the political capital that Germany itself has accumulated during more
than half a century by its economic achievements and its contribution to the
European project, if not the project itself. And if tomorrow this or another
Greek government tries to get some help from Russia, China or anybody else
willing to help, it will not be the work of some individuals acting under malign
Russian “influence”. It will be the result of sheer necessity for this country
to survive.
We need to return to the critical examination of the roots of these
crises and of the ways to face them. I am afraid it is not by searching mails
or “suspicious” weddings (!) in Moscow that we will be able to confront the
huge, nearly existential problems, Europe is now facing.
I ask you to publish this letter and I feel, believe me, very sorry to
have to address it to you.
Dimitris Konstantakopoulos
Athens, 18/2/2015
