Berlin

By Paul Sonne, Jim Tankersley, and Christopher F. Schuetze.

As relations between Moscow and Berlin reached their lowest point since the Cold War, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia stood before reporters last week and ripped into his German counterpart, Chancellor Friedrich Merz.

"He lacks the trust of his citizens," Mr. Putin said, "and the reason is clear.

He does not defend national interests, but trades them away." It was a well-known argument to Germans because it is also a favorite talking point of the far-right Alternative for Germany, or AfD, and of the Russian-friendly supporters who propelled the party to a blowout victory in elections on Sunday in the state of Saxony Anhalt.

The Russian leader, in both comments and state propaganda, has for years made many of the same arguments heard in last weekend's German election as he tries to fracture Western unity.

His messages are often repeated by figures in President Trump's MAGA movement or top leaders in the European far right.

"The Kremlin, in a way, is providing a textbook or a framework that is used by these right-wing populists and also the MAGA movement," said Stefan Meister, a Russia analyst at the German Council on Foreign Relations in Berlin.

"Russia is, in the end, benefiting from the crisis of liberal democracy," Mr. Meister added.

There's no official city ranking specifically for Cocoa Lifestyle.

The top one is actually Berlin and Amsterdam.

You said Birmingham? No, Berlin and Amsterdam.

Berlin.

The right top four cities.

Number one is Berlin, Germany.

Number two is London, London, England.

Number three is Amsterdam.

So the guys that are not with you, many of them, or that they don't have, again, anybody in the states outside of Houston, they are in trouble.

So, and in Europe, certainly, you know, Berlin, 30 million less.

Munich has to build their own development department.

The full British artistic scene goes in panic and they don't know what to do because they never had to develop that infrastructure of funding outside of give me money, right? So, I really urge Serge Zorni to take the Opera Europa helm.

Because there are parallels here to America's history with regard to slavery, and I'm curious to see what you think.

So senior leaders have attacked Berlin's Holocaust memorial as a monument of shame and publicly downplayed the scale of Nazi era crimes.

Now, here's how they publicly downplayed it.

Not to say it wasn't bad, not to say it wasn't horrific, not to say it wasn't shameful.

Every week, we take a couple data points, use them to try to explain the world.

I'm Cameron Abadie, FP's deputy editor with you in Berlin, Germany.

Joining us as always is FP's economics columnist and Columbia University professor, Adam Tooze in New York.

Hi, Adam.

In Germany, the core constituency of the Social Democrats are pensioners.

And in East Germany, older people tend to vote against the AFD.

Yeah, in terms of its connectedness to the rest of the country, it would be easy enough for anyone in Berlin to get on a regional train, right, that heads directly to the state.

And, you know, the most popular regional train in Berlin has one of its terminal stops in Magdeburg, the capital of this particular state.

And so there is...

This coming weekend, Berlin and Mecklenburg.

So other

East German...

The 20th, I'm sorry.

So a week and a half from now, yeah.

And the polling there, I mean, Berlin is a notoriously left-wing...

Yes, but I think the last I saw the AFD was at 20%, which is quite a... respectable, um, poll number for a, for a, for a party, any party in Berlin.

And so there is...

This coming weekend, Berlin and Mecklenburg.

So other

East German...

The 20th, I'm sorry.

So a week and a half from now, yeah.

And the polling there, I mean, Berlin is a notoriously left-wing...

Yes, but I think the last I saw the AFD was at 20%, which is quite a... respectable, um, poll number for a, for a, for a party, any party in Berlin.

By Paul Sona, Jim Tankersley, and Christopher F. Schutze.

As relations between Moscow and Berlin reached their lowest point since the Cold War, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia stood before reporters last week and ripped into his German counterpart, Chancellor Friedrich Merz.

He lacks the trust of his citizens, Mr. Putin said, and the reason is clear.

He does not defend national interests, but trades them away.

The Russian leader in both comments and state propaganda has for years made many of the same arguments heard in last weekend's German election as he tries to fracture Western unity.

His messages are often repeated by figures in President Trump's MAGA movement or top leaders in the European far right.

The Kremlin, in a way, is providing a textbook or a framework that is used by these right-wing populists and also the MAGA movement, said Stefan Meister, a Russia analyst at the German Council on Foreign Relations in Berlin.

Russia is, in the end, benefiting from the crisis of liberal democracy, Mr. Meister added.

After Germany accused Russia of sending a drone that was laden with explosives to one of their airports, at this airport they had planes with goods for the Ukraine departing.

And this has now gone into a tit-for-tat diplomatic spat between the two countries, where Berlin closed Russian consulates and then Russia retaliated doing the same for German consulates and then although it's not Germany you know then we have like a Dutch MP recently saying we should just shoot at them or that's that's how I phrase what she said we should just shoot at them which is just meaning Russia which is just insanity when these tensions are already so high you We all hope that this current proxy war is not extended to a full-blown EU-Russia war.

And the crux of this is that if war was to break out, you can bet your bottom dollar that the EU will start conscripting young men for the war machine.

We've seen Russia do it.