International affairs columnist Marc Champion says last weekend’s victory for
the pro‑Russia Alternative for Germany (AfD) in Saxony‑Anhalt strengthens
Vladimir Putin’s position. Champion argues that over the next year other
pro‑Russia European populist parties could make electoral gains, reducing
European support for funding Ukraine and for sanctions on Russia, with France
the most important potential battleground. That, he says, helps explain why
Putin, despite mounting economic and political costs from the war, is reluctant
to compromise in talks: he judges Russia is winning the information war in
Europe and that further political shifts could eventually hand Russia an
advantage in the conflict while fracturing Western unity and NATO.
