Mr Fischer, would you have expected that we would have to talk seriously about the possibility of a nuclear strike in Europe in 2022? No, I thought that in the 21st century humanity would have completely different problems, such as the global climate. Like all Germans my age, I spent many years of my life under the threat of nuclear weapons during the Cold War. It is banal: as long as they exist, they can always be used. However, after 1989 I did not expect that a major war could return to Europe in such a way.

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