Berlin | One of Vladimir Putin’s biggest miscalculations since the Ukraine war started almost 12 months ago could be his historically cosy relationship with European powerhouse Germany.

As a KGB officer in the 1980s, Putin spent five years stationed in then communist East Germany. And as Russian president more than a decade later, Putin proclaimed in the Bundestag, in fluent German, that the two countries were partners in “building a common European home”, with close economic ties.