(image credit: Flickr)
As Russia keeps pounding Ukrainian cities with airstrikes and advances along the frontline in Donbas, regional elections in two states in eastern Germany have seen a surge of support for parties on the extreme right and extreme left.
What is particularly concerning is that both parties oppose support for Ukraine and back a more Kremlin-aligned view of the Russian aggression against Ukraine. They put most of the blame on the West for provoking Russia and tap into a reservoir of fear of being dragged into a full-blown military confrontation with Moscow.
Such views, and their success at the ballot box, are not unique to the former East Germany. Other states in central and eastern Europe that were under Soviet control until 1989 have seen the rise of similar sentiments, most notably among them EU and NATO members Slovakia and Hungary.
The same is true for some states that were formerly part of the Soviet Union, such as Azerbaijan and Georgia. Representing a curious mix of fear, resentment and nostalgia, this does not mean the restoration of the Soviet bloc by stealth, but it points to an ideological consolidation in at least part of that region.
