«Russia has sunk into the deepest barbarism» — German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said the Russian leadership cannot exist without war, and any negotiations with Putin would lead nowhere. According to him, the Kremlin must keep its war machine running because it has no plan for hundreds of thousands of soldiers returning from the front. Merz believes the war will end only when one side is exhausted — militarily or economically. Normalizing relations with Moscow in the near future, he added, is virtually impossible.