“German leaders have been clear about their historic responsibility to stop Russia from doing in this century what the Nazis did in the last. We’re asking them to stand by that commitment.” — RDI CEO Uriel Epshtein. // Photo: Frank Rumpenhorst.
In leading German media, RDI is calling on Chancellor Scholz to fulfill his country’s historic responsibility and give Ukraine the aid it needs to stop Russia.
— RDI Chairman Garry Kasparov
NEW YORK, NY, UNITED STATES, August 19, 2024 /EINPresswire.com/ — Today, the Renew Democracy Initiative (RDI) launched its German Responsibility Campaign. The campaign centers on an appeal to Chancellor Olaf Scholz from RDI’s chairman, Russian dissident and former World Chess Champion Garry Kasparov, calling on the German leader to fulfill Berlin’s historic responsibility and provide Ukraine the military aid it needs to defeat Russian aggression.
RDI’s effort invokes Germany’s historic imperative to prevent another man-made tragedy in the wake of World War II and the Holocaust. The country, Kasparov affirms in a video message, “can repay its debt to humanity by stopping Putin’s fascist war against Ukraine.”
The campaign features a full-page ad in Bild, the most widely circulated newspaper in Germany and all of Europe, as well as an online petition addressed to Chancellor Scholz featuring a video message from Kasparov, and an op-ed in Die Welt, another major German outlet.
The campaign’s launch on Monday proved especially timely, with news over the weekend that Germany would freeze requests for military aid to Ukraine for the remainder of 2024. This comes on top of earlier reports that the German government already planned to halve its assistance to Kyiv. Meanwhile, Ukraine is in the midst of an unprecedented incursion into Russian territory, bringing the war to Putin’s side of the border. But RDI remains concerned that Ukraine’s momentum could quickly disappear if it loses support from its most significant European ally.
“Scholz shouldn’t just reverse his planned reduction in aid,” Kasparov writes in Die Welt. “He should increase Germany’s assistance to Ukraine.”
That includes “the coveted Taurus missile, which could take out the Kerch Bridge linking occupied Crimea with mainland Russia, decisively crippling the invaders’ supply lines and potentially shifting the tide of the war.”
RDI’s Washington, DC-based CEO Uriel Epshtein noted that American political uncertainty added urgency to the organization’s work on Germany.
“We are making a significant investment in this push because the United States might not be there for Ukraine after November,” Epshtein cautioned. “But German leaders have been clear about their historic responsibility to stop Russia from doing in this century what the Nazis did in the last. We’re asking them to stand by that commitment.”
Evan Gottesman
Renew Democracy Initiative
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RDI’s German Responsibility Campaign: A video message from Garry Kasparov
