The zones of influence at the time of the Cold War have long been history, but Putin is still "wrongly imagining them in existence today," says Jean Asselborn, Luxembourg's Minister for Foreign Affairs. Decades ago, Egon Bahr was anxious not to turn his back on what was then the Eastern Bloc, guided by "change through rapprochement." Asselborn was able to get to know Egon Bahr at an SPD party conference and he particularly appreciated his "pragmatic policy, free of ideology." -ls
Katrin Rulle