The four terms of Chancellor Angela Merkel (2005–2021) are in the tradition of German policy toward Russia. The policy of partnership had been justified during Russia’s open-ended transformation in the 1990s. It lost its basis with the regime that Putin represented. A change in German policy failed to materialize because the politicians involved did not want to give away their self-image and the economic actors did not want to surrender their economic advantages. Although there were early warnings about authoritarian regression in Russia, German policy cooperated with a deeply corrupt and authoritarian regime and allowed it to access critical infrastructures in Germany. The war against Ukraine shattered these illusions of German politics.

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