In a way, Schröder’s and Merkel’s actions of integrating with Russia after 2012 and 2014 were against the interests of the EU and NATO, but the German electorate and media didn’t notice this at all or very quietly at the time.

An example for this is the German funding of the NordStream pipeline in the Baltic Sea, which, only once the 2022 invasion began, became a stranded asset and not way earlier. Crazy, from our POV, that this project got approved, despite US-American warnings. Well, it got blown up anyways, but that it got approved and funded on the background of Russian imperialism and climate change beforehand is bonkers.