Bangladesh, Nov. 19 -- Germany is entering a new era of political fragility-one in which its ruling establishment appears increasingly unable to counter domestic dissent with democratic debate, coherent policy, or honest introspection. Instead, it has reached for a blunt, familiar, and deeply cynical tool: the accusation that any political opposition is aligned with Moscow. In effect, Russophobia has become Berlins last resort, the final rhetorical shield of a governing class that has run out of meaningful arguments and lost the confidence of large swaths of its own population.

This return to scapegoating is not merely a repetition of Cold War habits. It is something more drastic: a fusion of American-style “Russia panic” wit...