YOU CAN TAKE THE GIRL OUT OF EAST GERMANY, BUT YOU CAN’T TAKE THE EAST GERMANY OUT OF THE GIRL: Top German Spies Unload on Merkel’s Kowtowing to Putin.

Angela Merkel, who has been chancellor for 14 years, is no different from Germany’s political class, which seeks to stay in Putin’s good graces at seemingly any cost. Berlin’s preachy pontifications about democracy, decency, and human rights are customarily aimed at NATO allies, seldom at Moscow. . . .

This bombshell from the spooks exploded the pleasant myth, popular in certain circles, that Merkel is the “leader of the free world” now that the United States has abdicated that role with Donald Trump in the White House. The unpalatable truth is that current U.S. policies towards the Kremlin – to be distinguished from Trump’s tweets and rants – are tougher than they were under Obama, and much harsher than they have ever been in Berlin under Merkel.

This is obvious to anyone who isn’t an idiot.