Pro-Russian German politician Wagenknecht calls Putin a criminal

German left-wing populist politician Sahra Wagenknecht, leader of the far-left Sarah Wagenknecht Alliance, has said that Russian ruler Vladimir Putin is a “criminal, like all politicians who start wars.”

According to Spiegel, Sahra Wagenknecht distanced herself from the Russian leader in connection with the war of aggression against Ukraine. 

“I condemn this war. I consider politicians who start wars—and this also applies to Vladimir Putin—to be criminals,” Wagenknecht said in her annual review for ZDF.

At the same time, the left-wing populist politician defended her decision to leave the Bundestag with her party when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke there in June.

According to Wagenknecht, there was no chance of a debate at the time. Only a “standing ovation” was planned for Zelenskyy, who the day before, she said, “had ordered an attack on Russian nuclear forces with drones.” According to her, this was “very irresponsible.”

People have long referred to Sahra Wagenknecht as “Putin’s friend” due to her pro-Russian stance. She recently proposed her “peace plan”: The West would stop supplying weapons to Ukraine if the Russian president “agrees to an immediate ceasefire on the current front line.”

Wagenknecht and her BSW Party are considered fierce critics of Western arms deliveries to Ukraine and are in favor of negotiations with Russia.  The politician recently admitted that she had misjudged the war of aggression at the beginning. “I was wrong back then too. I thought it was a threatening gesture,” said Wagenknecht on ZDF’s ‘heute journal.’.

In 2022, in the first months of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Sahra Wagenknecht campaigned against Germany’s weapons supply and military aid to Ukraine.  However, without enough weapons, Ukraine would be more vulnerable to Russian attacks, and Russia could capture and occupy more Ukrainian territories.