当他与俄罗斯总统普京建立起密切的个人和政治关系时，他向世界—以及欧盟敏感的东欧新成员国 - - 传递的信息是，德国的外交政策将不再受过去的牵制。
When he established a close personal and political relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin, he signaled to the world – and to the EU’s sensitive new Eastern European members – that Germany’s foreign policy would no longer be constrained by the past.