Helmut Schmidt, 95, claimed the crisis in Ukraine is "increasingly comparable" to the period leading up to the 1914-1918 Great War.And he blamed the European Commission and NATO for seriously misreading the worst East-West tension since the end of the Cold War.
"I think very little of talking up the threat of World War III, and especially of demands for more money to arm NATO," he told German newspaper Bild."But the danger that the situation gets ever more tense, as it did in August 1914, is growing day by day."Schmidt, who led West Germany from 1974-82, said "the situation to me seems increasingly comparable" to the eve of war exactly a century ago.
"Europe, the Americans and also the Russians are acting the way author Christopher Clark describes the start of World War One in his very readable book, like 'sleepwalkers'." Express.
