Germany once cosied up to Putin. Now they are Russia’s public enemy number one in Europe

Ian Bond, the deputy director of The Centre for European Reform (CER), said the signing of the 2015 Minsk II Agreement was another indicator of the strength of Russian-German relations at the time.

Brokered under Merkel, the deal was widely criticised as effectively signalling Western acceptance of Russia's illegal annexation of Crimea.

...For Mr Bond, the war bought a change in the German collective consciousness: “There was a realisation in Germany that Putin’s ambitions were not limited to Crimea and bits of Donbas.

“Russia is an imperialist power... and I think the Germans took some time to wake up and realise that Europe has a serious Russia problem.”

The motives behind Russia’s recent hybrid attacks are partly strategic, explained Mr Bond, with Moscow seeking to exploit divisions in Germany over continuing support for Kyiv.

State elections are coming up in Germany where the far-right, pro-Russia party, Alternative for Germany (AfD) are topping the polls.

“With these attacks, it seems like Putin is trying to scare Germans into voting for a party who can show that they won’t have a problem with Russia,” he said.

Mr Bond said that voters opting for a party sympathetic to the Kremlin was a “puzzle” unique to Germany, that was not replicated in eastern European states.

...“Germany is bearing the brunt of recent attacks, but there is quite a lot of this going on,” he said.

“The message of this for the rest of Europe and NATO is that, while Russia may not be strong enough to launch direct attacks, it is doing everything it can to destabilise Europe, and try to scare away support for Ukraine.”

Mr Bond warned against potential German appeasement of Putin.

“Each one hopes that if he feeds the crocodile enough, the crocodile will eat him last," Mr Bond quoted. “Here, Putin is hoping that the rest of Europe will believe that if it feeds Ukraine to Russia — it’ll be the end of it all.”