"Matters considered important"
A couple of news items this morning — new developments in the trial of the man accused of assassinating German politician Walter Lübcke, plus the leaders of Libya’s warring factions are in Moscow putting their ceasefire in writing under the aegis of the great peacemaker, Vladimir Putin.
And then the gun went off…
Stephan Ernst was arrested after Lübcke’s June 2 murder. The killing was the first political assassination carried out by the far-right in Germany since WWII. Ernst first confessed, but then retracted the confession when he changed lawyers. Now he has given a new statement to the court, in which he says an accomplice mistakenly fired the shot that killed Lübcke, and that their intention had been only to “intimidate” him. The bigger question here is, What was the true extent of the plot against Lübcke? And what else was or is being plotted?
You can read more about this latest development here (in German). I wrote about the case for The Nation here.
A Libyan deal made in Russia
The two factions fighting in Libya are meeting today in Moscow. The ceasefire brokered by Turkey and Russia, each of which backs one of the factions, went into effect yesterday. It seems to have been mostly, if imperfectly, observed. Angela Merkel was in Moscow Saturday and will host a broader conference on Libya this coming weekend. Russia and Turkey will be scheming to maintain their positions in the country through their proxies there. The other Europeans will be uneasy about this, but frankly I think they might not mind too much if immigration from Libya to Europe is held to a minimum.
You can read the brief Reuters report (in English) here, or a longer discussion (in French) here.
The diplomatist
Tolstoy’s War and Peace provides, among other things, some fairly epic takedowns of high-level intriguers and hangers-on. I wish we could have had Tolstoy unleashed as a journalist in a modern capital like Washington or Brussels, with their thousands of venal lobbyists crawling about. But of course he wouldn’t say, aggressively, that they were “venal” and “crawling about.” He would say something much more damning, like this:
“Prince Vasili was not a man who deliberately thought out his plans. Still less did he think of injuring anyone for his own advantage. He was merely a man of the world who had got on and to whom getting on had become a habit. Schemes and devices for which he never rightly accounted to himself, but which formed the whole interest of his life, were constantly shaping themselves in his mind, arising from the circumstances and persons he met.”
One of the minor characters in War and Peace is the young Russian diplomat Bilibin. I first read the book in 2001, the year before I entered the State Department. Now I am re-reading it, after having spent some years among our own Bilibins. But our Bilibins — rest assured! — are very different from the Imperial Russian ones of the Napoleonic wars, as we are for democracy. Which reminds me of the Woody Allen character who protests that sure, he’s a bigot, but he’s a bigot for the left.
Bilibin is introduced this way:
“He was not one of those many diplomats who are esteemed because they have certain negative qualities, avoid doing certain things, and speak French. He was one of those who, liking work, knew how to do it, and despite his indolence would sometimes spend a whole night at his writing table. He worked equally well whatever the import of his work. It was not the question ‘What for?’ but the question ‘How?’ that interested him. What the diplomatic matter might be he did not care, but it gave him great pleasure to prepare a circular, memorandum, or report, skillfully, pointedly, and elegantly. Bilibin’s services were valued not only for what he wrote, but also for his skill in dealing and conversing with those in the highest spheres.
“Bilibin liked conversation as he liked work, only when it could be made elegantly witty. In society he always awaited an opportunity to say something striking, and took part in a conversation only when that was possible. His conversation was always sprinkled with wittily original, finished phrases of general interest. These sayings were prepared in the inner laboratory of his mind in a portable form as if intentionally, so that insignificant people might carry them from drawing-room to drawing-room. And in fact Bilibin’s witticisms were hawked about in the Viennese drawing-rooms and often had an influence on matters considered important.
“His thin, worn, sallow face was covered with deep wrinkles, which always looked as clean and well washed as the tips of one’s fingers after a Russian bath. The movement of these wrinkles formed the principal play of expression on his face. Now his forehead would pucker into deep folds and his eyebrows were lifted, then his eyebrows would descend and deep wrinkles would crease his cheeks. His small, deep-set eyes always twinkled and looked out straight.”
That phrase “matters considered important….” Which matters truly are important? And how would we know? Do you have a better answer than the one people like Prince Vasili and Bilibin would give?
Thanks very much for reading. Shares and forwards are always appreciated, and I wish everyone a very pleasant week!