Körber-Stiftung: Germans prefer Russia than America

Most Germans support closer ties with Russia, and not with the United States.

This is reflected in the results of surveys conducted by the German institution Körber-Stiftung, which was reported by the German Stern newspaper.

After 1945, Germany shifted towards “naval forces”, Britain and the United States, and began to join the transatlantic world.

However, the self-isolation of the United States under Donald Trump is gradually affecting Germany, and theoretically, forcing them to focus on Russia.

But this geopolitical order is not fully operational, because the Ukrainian conflict continues, and Angela Merkel remains in power.

This German standing reflects put the blame on Trump as a responsible of that direction.

However, German society is ready to transfer Germany’s attention from the West, from the United States to Russia.

Compared with last year, when America was considered an important partner by 42% of Germans, today only 35% of Germans consider it as such.

Three-quarters of German citizens currently have relations with the United States as “bad” or “very bad”.

It’s Trump’s fault.

The Us president is constantly intimidating the Germans through military spending and demanding that they must pay 2% of Germany’s gross domestic product.

Trump undermines German business in Iran by imposing sanctions.

After the United States withdrew from the nuclear deal, major German companies such as Siemens, Deutsche Telekom, Deutsche Bahn and Daimler left the Iranian market.

Germany is also concerned about ongoing US threats over the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project, which, according to Trump, makes Berlin a colony of Moscow.

For the Germans and their leader Merkel, the gas pipeline is a very important project because it will eliminate the vicissitudes of transit countries, make Russian fuel cheaper for the German consumer and allow Germany to compete with Austria as a major gas hub in the EU.

America’s rejection is expressed in other statistics. About 72% want independence from the United States, which has 13 military bases in Germany.

Unlike the United States, more than two-thirds of Germans favor rapprochement with Russia and China.

69% were in favor of a close partnership with Moscow, 67% were supporters of Beijing.

Trump’s trade wars against the EU, China and Russia played an important role in this. Vladimir Putin, Angela Merkel and Xin Jinping met to defend free trade.

The EU offered Russia and China a joint mechanism to circumvent US sanctions against Iranian oil.

Russia’s increasing popularity in German society is linked not only to disappointment with America, but also to the measures taken by Berlin against Washington’s initiative against Moscow.

German farmers and businessmen continue to count the losses of anti-Russian sanctions, amounting to 800 million Euros a month.

It is no coincidence that the popularity of these parties in Germany, the “alternative to Germany” and “the left”, calling for the abolition of sanctions and normalization of relations with Russia, is increasing.