Berlin-Moscow axis (deja view?)

70 years ago, a Soviet-Nazi pact, called Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, divided Europe into German and Soviet spheres of influence. The Molotov-Ribbentrop pact incorporated also some important economic provisions. But after Moscow refused to fulfill its economic commitments, Hitler invaded the Soviets.

A half century later, Berlin and Moscow are best friends (again). While Russia's relations with the rest of Europe have deteriorated since the Ukrainian gas wars and the Georgian conflict, the cooperation between Germany and Russia has increased dramatically. A stream of agreements reflects the depth of what has become Europe's most powerful new partnership:

• Germany has vetoed an EU-wide energy market that would reduce Europe's dependency on Russian supplies.
• While much of Europe seeks to free itself of energy dependence on Russia, Germany's E.On is buying up Russian gas fields. E.On—connected to Gazprom through a web of interlocking businesses—this June won a 25 percent share of the Yuzhno-Russkoye gas field, one of the world's biggest, while Royal Dutch Shell and Britain's BP were squeezed out of lucrative oilfield-development projects in Russia.
• The former head of the German government Gerhard Schroeder took a job as head of the board of Nord Stream, a pipeline project that is controlled by Russian state-owned energy company Gazprom.
• Last month, the current German Chancellor Angela Merkel backed a deal to sell the German shipbuilder Wadan to Igor Yusufov, a Russian oligarch, who is also a board member of Gazprom.
• Siemens abandoned its joint venture with France's Areva to partner instead with Russia's Rosatom to build as many as a fifth of the world's nuclear plants.
• Berlin picked a consortium that includes Kremlin-controlled Sberbank to take over General Motors' Opel, oiled by up to €4.5 billion in German taxpayer funds. Russian carmaker GAZ also gets in on the action as an industrial partner of Opel, and Russia has said it is looking to tap the Germans' auto sector know-how to take a 'leap into the future' with its own car industry. The Opel takeover came with the blessing of both German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. 
• Germany was Russia's "biggest helper" in its successful attempt to block the eastward expansion of NATO (according to Mikhail Margelov, chairman of the foreign-affairs committee in the upper house of Russia's Parliament).

Merkel’s relationship with Russia had improved over the last few months, compared with a year ago. But what has changed in the recent months? According to The New York Times, it is the tone and style of Russian president Medvedev that made Merkel warm up to business deals with Russia.

• Medvedev has not intimidated Mrs. Merkel — something Vladimir Putin seemed to be aiming for by having his black Labrador, Koni, sit in on some of the meetings. Merkel is afraid of dogs.
• And when Merkel has raised human rights issues with Medvedev, he has not dismissed the issues, which Putin regularly did.
• Above all, Medvedev welcomed the cameras and media, in contrast to Putin, who kept them at a distance.

An interesting fact: In May, Chancellor Merkel revealed on a TV talk show, that the East German Stasi secret police once offered her a position as a spy, but she declined, citing her talkative nature (...?!) Although she did consider fleeing to West Germany and had the opportunity to do so in 1986 when she visited a cousin in Hamburg, Merkel's relationship to her parents, friends and relatives was too important to take that step, she said.
Merkel grew up in the German Democratic Republic (GDR), as the communist country was known, where the Stasi was responsible for spying on and imprisoning thousands of people who criticised the regime.
 
But Deutsche Wochen-Zeitung had cited an article in the Swiss Magazine (online eddition), which reported that Merkel and some members of her family allegedly had worked for Stasi. Expatica.com reported in April, that former Stasi officers now guard Merkel's residence. One of the guards used to be a member of Stasi-Abteilung III, a unit whose responsibilities included bugging telephone calls in West Germany.
 
Vladimir Putin was a KGB agent in East Germany between 1985 and 1990. According to The Washington Post, he looked for East Germans who had a plausible reason to travel abroad. The legend was often a business trip, during which the agents could covertly link up with other spies permanently stationed in the West. According to German intelligence specialists who described Putin's task, the goal was stealing Western technology or NATO secrets. A newly revealed document shows Putin was trying to recruit agents to be trained in "wireless communications." But for what purpose is not clear.