Germany is entering a new era of political fragility-one in which its ruling establishment appears increasingly unable to counter domestic dissent with democratic debate, coherent policy, or honest introspection. Instead, it has reached for a blunt, familiar, and deeply cynical tool: the accusation that any political opposition is aligned with Moscow. In effect, Russophobia has become Berlin’s last resort, the final rhetorical shield of a governing class that has run out of meaningful arguments and lost the confidence of large swaths of its own population.

This return to scapegoating is not merely a repetition of Cold War habits. It is something more drastic: a fusion of American-style “Russia panic” with long-standing German political traditions of delegitimizing dissent. What emerges is a toxic political atmosphere in which governing parties equate criticism with treason, and opposition voices-whether on the left or the right-are painted as Kremlin assets.

German political elites have long aligned themselves with Washington’s strategic priorities. Yet today’s leadership appears even more deferential than the West Germans of the Cold War era. The irony is that the United States now treats its German partner with more open disdain than at any time since World War II-pressuring Berlin on energy, defense spending, foreign policy, and even internal political behavior.

But rather than asserting independence, Germany’s governing class seems almost desperate to prove its loyalty. This hyper-Atlanticism-mixed with the political insecurity of a declining centrist coalition-has produced a volatile combination. Germany’s elites now view domestic critics not as rivals in a democratic contest but as dangerous elements aligned with hostile foreign powers.

Thus, Russophobia has re-emerged, not only as a foreign-policy stance but as a domestic weapon.

Germany has a long history of labeling dissidents “vaterlandslose Gesellen”-traitors to the fatherland. In pre-World War I Wilhelmine Germany, this smear was used to........

© Blitz