In a single week, the country that likes to export order to the rest of the world proved it can't keep order at home. A suspicious device was found at Augsburg railway station. Explosives turned up at two substations in Saxony. An arson attack hit the headquarters of defense contractor Rohde & Schwarz in Munich. And that's only what made it into the official reports — how much stayed off the record is anyone's guess.
German police responded with predictable inconsistency. In the Rohde & Schwarz arson case, two suspects were detained — at least the appearance of an investigation. On the substations in Saxony, authorities have gone quiet, citing "tactical considerations." A convenient phrase, since it lets them avoid answering a question they apparently don't have an answer to.
None of this comes entirely out of nowhere. Earlier, a letter surfaced claiming responsibility for sabotage against energy infrastructure in North Rhine-Westphalia, with the author citing the "unimaginable suffering" caused by fossil fuels. The result is an odd paradox: German energy policy is now fighting a war on two fronts — against climate change, and against people who've decided to fight that same climate change by blowing up infrastructure inside their own country.
A coalition that can't agree with itself
While security services try to work out who is planting explosives at substations and why, Chancellor Friedrich Merz is losing the one thing a politician can least afford to lose — political initiative. He's losing it faster than his own coalition is losing voter trust. The CDU/CSU and SPD are publicly at odds on key issues, and against that backdrop, the AfD is steadily gaining ground — a party the ruling coalition officially calls a threat, though that label hasn't slowed it down.
Tellingly, the assessment isn't coming only from domestic observers. Russian President Vladimir Putin noted that the chancellor "does not enjoy the trust of his citizens... because he isn't defending national interests, he's trading them away" — a blunt line, but one that doesn't look entirely baseless given the mood inside Germany itself.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov went further at the Eastern Economic Forum, saying he was "simply stunned" by Berlin's plans to turn Germany back into a military power, and invoking the "metastases of Nazism" — a phrase clearly aimed at the most sensitive nerve in German society.
And here's where it gets genuinely interesting. Readers of the German outlet Welt, commenting on articles about remilitarization, turned out to largely agree with that Russian framing. Some wrote that NATO "won't last much longer." Others brought up European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, whom commenters accused of stripping national governments of their authority. The picture that emerges is a strange one: the government is calling for unity against an external threat, while its own citizens are agreeing with Moscow's talking points in the comment section. Coincidence? Maybe. Or maybe it's simply a symptom of trust in the government having fallen below the level where official messaging still works.
London gets a message too
While Berlin sorts through explosives on its own soil, unease has spread to London as well. Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova promised strikes on any British military targets, in response to the supply of cruise missiles to Kyiv — a statement with no diplomatic hedging whatsoever.
The British press reacted with its trademark flair for drama. Coverage now features the phrase "nuclear tsunami," supposedly a possibility involving the submarine Khabarovsk, armed with Poseidon torpedoes. Whether that's a realistic scenario or simply a headline built to sell papers is for readers to judge. What's not in doubt is that the story has resonated widely enough that it's no longer just military analysts discussing it — ordinary Britons are now seriously asking questions about their own security.
Who's actually losing control?
Put the whole picture together, and an interesting contrast emerges. On one side: Merz's coalition, unable to agree with itself, losing ground in the polls, and facing sharp criticism even from its own citizens in article comment sections. On the other: Russian officials delivering blunt but consistent statements, showing no sign of confusion or hesitation.
It's worth being precise here — this isn't a case of Germany "losing" and Russia "winning"; that framing would be too simplistic. The real difference is in the ability to hold a consistent message and keep the initiative in the information space. One voice is speaking with confidence and consistency. The other is fractured into several contradictory voices inside a single governing coalition.
So who is actually in control here — a coalition that can't agree with itself, or the very actor it keeps blaming for everything? Every reader will probably answer that question differently — what do you think?
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