Germany has outsized influence on the 28-nation European Union.
That’s why Ukrainians are aghast that Germany appears far from from
imposing tough economic and political sanctions against Russia. The
Angela Merkel-Vladimir Putin embrace at the July 13 World Cup final in
Brazil heightened Ukrainians’ feelings of betrayal and revived memories
of all the ways that Germany is helping Russia militarily and
economically. Its former chancellor, Gerhard Schroeder, is even on
Putin’s payroll as a Gazprom lobbyist and has been a shameless apologist
of the Kremlin dictator.
