Deutschland AG’s enduring bet on Russia

EVER SINCE Ostpolitik was conceived in the 1970s, Germany has preferred engagement with Russia to confrontation. Now political relations are at a low point after an attempt last year by Russian security agents to poison Alexei Navalny, a prominent opposition politician, who was flown to Germany for treatment. So is trade. In the wake of sanctions imposed after Russia’s annexation of Crimea and its incursion into Ukraine in 2014, the country’s trade with Germany dwindled in value to €45bn ($54bn) last year, from €80bn in 2012. In 2007 Germany was Russia’s biggest trading partner. Today it is a distant second behind China, which exchanged goods worth $104bn with Russia last year.