German navy chief who said NATO should give Putin ‘the respect he demands’ resigns – Yahoo News

Vice-admiral Kay-Achim Schnbach meeting with German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht BERND WUSTNECK/POOL/AFP via Getty Images

German naval chief Vice-admiral Kay-Achim Schnbach announced his resignation Saturday after his comments about the ongoing crisis on the Ukrainian border provoked outrage, The Guardian reported.

At a think-tank discussion in India Friday, Schnbach said all Russian President Vladimir Putin really wants is "respect," and that "giving him respect is low cost, even no cost. It is easy to give him the respect he demands, and probably deserves."

Schnbach, who has led Germany's navy since March 2020, also said the Crimean peninsula, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014, "is gone" and will "never come back" to Ukraine.

Ukraine's foreign ministry said Schnbach's remarks were "categorically unacceptable."

According to BBC, Ukraine has also criticized Germany for its refusal to provide the former Soviet republic with weapons and other forms of "lethal aid."

Schnbach also suggested that both India and Germany could benefit from cultivating closer ties with Russia as a way to counter rising Chinese influence and preserve Christian civilization against the officially atheist Chinese Communist Party.

"India, Germany we need Russia against China," he said to Sujan R. Chinoy, a former Indian ambassador. "Probably not from your perspective, but from my perspective. I'm a very radical Roman Catholic. I believe in God, and I believe in Christianity, and then [Russia is] a Christian country, even if Putin is an atheist, but it doesn't matter."

Putin is, at least nominally, a Russian Orthodox Christian, but has expressed discomfort with speaking publicly about his faith.

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German navy chief who said NATO should give Putin 'the respect he demands' resigns - Yahoo News