Germany's Russia problem: the struggle for balance in Europe
In: Russian strategy and power
Germany has the most developed relationship with Russia of any EU country, spanning business, education, politics, culture and sport. But Germany has a Russia problem: its policymakers struggle to accept that Moscow's efforts to rebalance Europe are an attack on Germany's interests. In this bold and original analysis, John Lough explains the scale of the challenge facing Germany as it strives to design policies for managing its relations with a changing Russia. Beginning with an account of how the countries' attitudes to each other were formed over centuries, he explores how German governments from 1991 to 2014 misread Russian intentions and inadvertently supported the emergence of a system hostile to German interests, until Angela Merkel sharply recalibrated German and EU policy. This edition features an afterword that reflects on Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine and Germany's response.