Sven Krueger he has much to be proud of for the Saxon city of which he is mayor, Freiberg. For example, this small university city, with about 40,000 inhabitants, claims as its own the landscape of the so-called “Ore Mountains”, a mountainous region recognized as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO and which forms the natural border between Germany and the Czech Republic. .
However, it is not this panorama of Saxony but some recent international merits of the mayor of Freiberg that has put this Teutonic city in the limelight. Krüger, an independent politician of almost fifty years who until 2018 was a member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), participated last weekend in one of the most prominent parties of the Russian elite. Namely, the Baile de Petrowski from Saint Petersburg. It has been reported by the German weekly The time in its digital edition earlier this week.
The party that Krüger attended, apparently of their own accord and paying for the expenses out of his pocket, it is an appointment held with the absolute recognition of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin. Putin himself starred in a video message at the party congratulating the organizers for a “project that transports us to the glorious chapters of Russian history,” the Russian head of state was quoted as saying in The time. “The organizers had announced that they wanted to revive the Russian cultural code of the old tsarist era“, the German weekly abounds.
Krüger was a special guest at the ball. He even gave a speech in which he spoke of his “optimism” regarding the German-Russian relations. “In the future,” as Krüger said in his speech, Germany and Russia “will again find a way to relate to each other and overcome difficult times.”
Rare is the German media that does not collect these statements by Krüger these days, but what has not come to light are the motives for the mayor’s optimism. Since Russia’s illegal war of aggression against Ukraine began in February last year, Germany and Russia have not stopped putting ground on each other.