"As far as my relationship with President Putin is concerned, it's fine"
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“As far as my relationship with President Putin is concerned, it’s fine” is the kind of sentence that tries to sound like nothing at all. That’s the point. Schroder isn’t making an argument; he’s performing normalcy. The phrase “as far as… is concerned” is classic bureaucratic solvent: it dissolves moral heat into procedural cool, shrinking a loaded issue into a personal status update. “It’s fine” lands with studied casualness, the verbal equivalent of a shrug in a room where everyone is watching your hands.
The context does the real work. Schroder isn’t just any ex-chancellor chatting about an old acquaintance; he became the West’s most infamous revolving-door case, moving from Germany’s top office into lucrative roles tied to Russian energy projects, all while Putin’s Russia grew more authoritarian and, later, openly expansionist. So “fine” isn’t reassurance. It’s defiance dressed as composure: a refusal to grant critics the premise that the relationship itself is suspect.
The subtext is strategic narrowing. By framing it as “my relationship,” Schroder shifts the discussion from geopolitics to personal loyalty, where he can claim autonomy and dignity. It’s a dodge that doubles as a signal: to Moscow, that he won’t be bullied into distance; to Berlin, that he won’t offer the catharsis of contrition. The sentence works because it’s small on purpose, a tight little shield against a very large question: fine for whom, and at what cost?
The context does the real work. Schroder isn’t just any ex-chancellor chatting about an old acquaintance; he became the West’s most infamous revolving-door case, moving from Germany’s top office into lucrative roles tied to Russian energy projects, all while Putin’s Russia grew more authoritarian and, later, openly expansionist. So “fine” isn’t reassurance. It’s defiance dressed as composure: a refusal to grant critics the premise that the relationship itself is suspect.
The subtext is strategic narrowing. By framing it as “my relationship,” Schroder shifts the discussion from geopolitics to personal loyalty, where he can claim autonomy and dignity. It’s a dodge that doubles as a signal: to Moscow, that he won’t be bullied into distance; to Berlin, that he won’t offer the catharsis of contrition. The sentence works because it’s small on purpose, a tight little shield against a very large question: fine for whom, and at what cost?
Quote Details
| Topic | Leadership |
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