Russia Expresses Skepticism Over German Foreign Minister’s Potential UN Presidency Bid
The Russian Foreign Ministry has expressed skepticism over the nomination of German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock as the next president of the United Nations General Assembly. According to the Russian news agency TASS, Maria Zakharova, the Foreign Ministry’s spokesperson, stated that it would be “strange” to see the granddaughter of a Nazi, who proudly speaks of her grandfather’s “heroic deed” in the presidency of the UN General Assembly, particularly in the 80th year of the Allied victory over Nazi Germany.
Baerbock’s grandfather, Waldemar Baerbock, was a Nazi supporter, as recorded in the Wehrmacht’s archives. He was awarded the War Merit Cross with Swords in 1944 for his “particular merits in the use of weapons under enemy fire or for particular merits in military warfare.”
The German government is reportedly planning to nominate Baerbock as a candidate for the UN General Assembly presidency for 2025-26. The presidency rotates annually among the five regional groups, with the “Western Europe and Others” group, to which Germany belongs, holding the rotating presidency this year.
Baerbock has previously spoken publicly and in books about her grandparents, including an online event hosted by the Atlantic Council in May 2021, where she mentioned her grandfather’s fight on the Oder River in 1945.
The UN General Assembly is expected to elect Baerbock as its president in early June, with her term to begin in September. She will reportedly resign from her Bundestag seat upon taking up the presidency.
The UN General Assembly’s Secretariat has denied receiving any information from the German government about the potential nomination of the German foreign minister for the presidency.