September 24, 2017, next elections to the Bundestag (Parliament) of the country took place in the Federal Republic of Germany. As expected, the victory was won by the CDU/CSU Union headed by the current Federal Chancellor of Germany, A. Merkel. According to preliminary data, it won 33 % of the vote. Second place was taken by the Social Democratic Party of Germany (20.5 %), and the third — by the right-populist party “Alternative for Germany” (12.6 %), which allowed it to enter the German Parliament for the first time. The Free Democratic Party (10.7 %), the Left Party (9.2 %) and the Greens (8.9 %) also got into the Bundestag.
According to German experts, such results will allow A. Merkel to form a ruling coalition consisting of the CDU/CSU, the Free Democratic Party and the Greens, and for the fourth time to remain the head of the German government. Given this, the Federal Republic of Germany’s foreign policy will remain unchanged, including in relation to Ukraine and Russia. Moreover, the open support of Russia by political opponents of the CDU/CSU, especially the “Alternative for Germany”, as well as the active campaign to discredit personally A. Merkel, will inevitably worsen her attitude to V. Putin’s regime.
Precisely this situation developed in Franco-Russian relations after the presidential elections in France last spring. Thus, Russia’s support to the pro-Russian candidate M. Le Pen quite objectively strengthened the winner of the elections in the country E. Macron’s negative attitude to V. Putin.
In general, the results of the elections in France and the FRG create prerequisites for increasing the rigidity of the EU’s policy of containing Russia, including by further building up sanctions against it. Besides, E. Macron’s and A. Merkel’s victories show the effectiveness of the European system of counteracting Russia’s information expansion, which was created in 2016 in response to Moscow’s interference with the elections in the EU countries.
At the same time, a new alignment of political forces in the Federal Republic of Germany makes it possible to conclude that there are some alarming trends in the development of the situation in the country. First of all, it concerns the growing popularity of the party “Alternative for Germany”, which now can push its policy through the Parliament of the FRG. In turn, in comparison with the previous parliamentary elections, the CDU/CSU Union lost about 8.5 % of the vote, which weakens its position in the Bundestag.
 |
| Preliminary results of the elections to the German Bundestag in comparison with the parliamentary elections in 2013 |
In fact, this is exactly on what Russia is counting, trying to split the EU and the leadership of individual countries of the European Union by supporting all sorts of pro-Russian, Euro-skeptic, left and nationalist forces, including the “Alternative for Germany” (AfD). At this, V. Putin’s regime does not react in any way to the AfD’s actually neo-Nazi positions, and this once again confirms the duality and irresponsibility of Russia’s policy.
By the way, the situation around the Kremlin’s “consent” to deploying a peacekeeping mission in the Donbas is also an example of such a policy of Moscow’s. Thus, on the eve of the elections in Germany on September 11, 2017, V. Putin, in a telephone conversation with A. Merkel, agreed to the deployment of peacekeepers in the whole area of the OSCE observers’ responsibility in the Donbas, but then refused it. This was the end of the “aspiration for peace”, which the Kremlin confirmed by the demonstrative dispersal of the protest in St. Petersburg against Russia’s war in Ukraine (September 24, 2017).
Against this background, a rather revealing was the fact of death in Syria on September 23, 2017, of head of the groups of Russia’s Military Advisers Lieutenant General V. Asapov (Commander of the 5th Combined Armed Army of the RF Armed Forces, who in 2015–2016 commanded the 1st Army Corps of Russian-Terrorist Forces in the Donbas). This is another blow to Moscow’s policy not only on the European and Ukrainian directions, but also in the Middle East, which is becoming another trap for the Russian Federation.
