The Russian Spell Completely Broken
On the End of a German Complex
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
All notions of a special relationship between Germany and Russia, as had reared its head after German reunification and the collapse of the Soviet Union, have come to an end with Putin’s war of aggression on Ukraine. Instead, the path chosen by Putin to reestablish a Greater Russian Empire has stirred fateful memories of those times when Berlin and Moscow hatched all kinds of revisionisms and totalitarian global designs. All of the enticing and creative ties that existed have been cut for now; whatever enchantment with Russia as an Other and an antipole to the world of the West has been settled. Putin does not care to see himself and his state loved nor understood, only feared.
(Osteuropa 1-3/2022, pp. 19–32)