Putin’s trolls are weakening Merz to boost Russia-friendly far right – POLITICO

BERLIN — Vladimir Putin is seizing his chance to strike Friedrich Merz when he’s at his weakest.

As the chancellor’s popularity plummets at home, the Kremlin appears to have escalated efforts to speed his decline and reinforce rising pro-Russia forces on Germany’s far right.

While Putin has long sought to undermine Merz — one of Ukraine’s biggest backers and therefore one of the Russian president’s foremost strategic adversaries — through influence campaigns and hybrid attacks, rarely have circumstances aligned so neatly in Moscow’s favor. Germany’s economy is faltering, its centrist coalition is weakened, and the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) is leading in national polls ahead of two state elections in eastern Germany, where the party is expected to post historic wins and could end up governing for the first time since its founding.