In the LIVE newsroom, political analyst and expert on Eastern Europe Alexander Dubowy and Matthew Karnitschnig, chief European correspondent for the American newspaper “Politico”, spoke about their expectations for the Munich Security Conference, which began on Friday.
More than 150 government representatives are attending this year’s Munich Security Conference – including German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron. The meeting is marked by Russia’s year-long war of aggression against Ukraine. Moscow government officials are absent for the second consecutive year.
In the LIVE newsroom, political analyst and expert on Eastern Europe Alexander Dubowy and Matthew Karnitschnig, chief European correspondent for the US newspaper “Politico”, spoke about their expectations for the 59th Munich Security Conference, which takes place from Friday to Sunday .
Reports of the American “Prefeel”
Regarding anchor Thomas Mohr’s question about whether a diplomatic peace initiative could come from Munich, Dubowy was pessimistic and saw clearly that the responsibility for this lay with the Kremlin. “Possible diplomatic solutions have been discussed for a long time. It is very obvious that Russia does not want to go down this negotiating path,” said the political analyst, who was born in Kazakhstan and lives in Vienna. Rumor has it that the United States recently tried to mediate between Moscow and Kiev, “at least someone had a hunch.” It quickly became clear “that Vladimir Putin does not want to negotiate under any circumstances,” Dubowy emphasized.
Zelenskyy’s Urgent Appeal
Karnitschnig, who is on site in Munich, described his impressions of the first day of the security conference. “The West is definitely united. One has the impression that Europe and the United States are now uniting,” said the journalist. Scholz and Macron’s speeches would have shown this yet again.
“What is maybe missing a little bit is speed. We heard that very clearly from Ukrainian President Zelenskyy in his speech,” Karnitschnig said. In a video speech, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy expressed his gratitude for the West’s military help, but at the same time called for more and faster help to defeat the Russian aggressor.