John Vinocur: The Russia lobby in Germany
Germany's Russia lobby includes industrial and political influence groups of considerable power, a faction of the Social Democratic party, and anti-European Union activists of the far left and right. They successfully encourage the notion that the West, America in particular, has humiliated Russia to the point of being responsible for Vladimir Putin's actions on Ukraine — and, above all, that confronting Russia on virtually any issue is catastrophic for German business.