Putin ‘wins’ in eastern Germany

BERLIN — A heated debate on Russia is crashing the normally more provincial politics of eastern German states, and Vladimir Putin is likely loving it. In regional elections in the formerly communist east on Sunday, Russia-friendly parties on both extremes of the political spectrum surged — and they are already demanding that German leaders radically change their way of dealing with the Kremlin. That includes the populist-left Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW), a new party named after its founder, a leftist …