Paris ¨C Speaking in what he called ¡°the language of Goethe, Schiller and Kant,¡± picked up during his time as a KGB officer in Dresden, Germany, President Vladimir Putin of Russia addressed the German Parliament on Sept. 25, 2001. ¡°Russia is a friendly European nation,¡± he declared. ¡°Stable peace on the continent is a paramount goal for our nation.¡±
The Russian leader, elected the previous year at the age of 47 after a meteoric rise from obscurity, went on to describe ¡°democratic rights and freedoms¡± as the ¡°key goal of Russia¡¯s domestic policy.¡± Members of the Bundestag gave a standing ovation, moved by the reconciliation Putin seemed to embody in a city, Berlin, that long symbolized division between the West and the totalitarian Soviet world.
Norbert R?ttgen, a center-right representative who headed the Parliament¡¯s Foreign Affairs Committee for several years, was among those who rose to their feet. ¡°Putin captured us,¡± he said. ¡°The voice was quite soft, in German, a voice that tempts you to believe what is said to you. We had some reason to think there was a viable perspective of togetherness.¡±
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