Strongman, The

because most of the European interlocutors were trying to factor in what Russia felt about things, because they didn’t want an open confrontation.’
    There were many reasons why France and Germany felt closer to the Russians than the Americans. It was not that they underestimated the former Warsaw Pact countries’ longing to join the West’s structures and to protect themselves from the country that had oppressed them for 50 years. Germany, in particular, was still revelling in the joy of reunification after the collapse of the Berlin Wall. Nor was it just a matter of pragmatism and trade, although the latter was important for Germany. Rather, there was an ill-defined sense, especially in European intellectual circles, that Russia ‘belonged’ to Europe, that they shared a history and culture, and the time was right – whatever the shortcomings of Russian democracy – to welcome them ‘home’. Indeed, the argument went, welcoming them home would be precisely the best way to improve democracy there.
    President Jacques Chirac of France epitomised this view. He had a strong personal interest in Russia. His parents had had a Russian émigré in their home in the 1930s, and Chirac himself had learned Russian and even translated Pushkin’s novel in verse, Yevgeny Onegin . According to his diplomatic adviser, Maurice Gourdault-Montagne, Chirac felt there was something ‘eternal’ about Russia, that it was neither fully European nor fully oriental. He had got on well with Yeltsin, who gave him the sauna and caviar treatment, and although he was cool towards Putin at first, he was willing to put his reservations aside, even regarding Chechnya.
    ‘Chirac said everything possible to help Putin and not to criticise him, and to help him appear on the world stage as a responsible leader having to deal with enormous stakes – how to catch up from Soviet times and become a modern country,’ says Gourdault-Montagne. ‘Chirac thought there was no evidence for Russia going back to Soviet times. They had jumped into a new world, but it was a long task, and they had to be supported. And it was in the interest of the West to help the Russians as much as possible because we have common interests. Chirac thought the stability of the continent was on the axis of Paris, Berlin and Moscow – hence all these trilateral meetings we had until 2007. It was fascinating to see how the three got on together.’ 6
    German chancellor Gerhard Schröder, the third in the trio, was like most of his compatriots eternally grateful to Russia for withdrawing its troops without fuss from Eastern Germany. As a gesture of goodwill he later wrote off €6 billion of debt that Moscow owed the former German Democratic Republic.
    The relationship, it is true, did not get off to a very good start. During the German election of 1998 Schröder had promised to stop pouring vast amounts of cash into Russia, as his predecessor Helmut Kohl had done. He wanted a pragmatic relationship based on business interests and a certain diplomatic reserve – none of the bear-hugging that Kohl and Yeltsin had indulged in. His foreign minister, Joschka Fischer, almost caused a diplomatic incident during his first meeting with Putin in January 2000 by denouncing his Chechen campaign and demanding an immediate ceasefire. Schröder himself did not shy away from visiting the three Baltic republics (something Kohl had refused to do for fear of offending the Russians) just a week before President Putin’s first visit to Berlin in June 2000.
    But the visit itself changed things dramatically. The two men talked for five hours, without an interpreter, thanks to Putin’s command of German. Despite Tony Blair’s attempts to ‘get in there first’, it was clear that Putin regarded Germany as Russia’s paramount European ally. Schröder himself understood that close collaboration with Russia was the best means to encourage democratisation: ‘Russia has always been successful,’ he wrote, ‘when it has opened itself up to Europe, engaged in a lively exchange and linked itself with the economic and intellectual development in the rest of Europe.’ 7 The two men initiated something unique among the European nations: the St Petersburg Dialogue, an annual Russian–German event which combined intellectual discussion with intergovernmental talks and intensive business-to-business deal-making. Soon Schröder would be drawn into Putin’s sauna-and-vodka circuit. They became