In a speech to Russia’s parliament shortly after Crimea’s referendum on rejoining Russia last month, president Vladimir Putin cited the reunification of East and West Germany as a precedent for annexing the Ukrainian territory. In the run-up to German reunification, Russia supported the “sincere, unstoppable desire of the Germans for national unity,” Putin said. “I expect that the citizens of Germany will also support the aspiration of the Russians, of historical Russia, to restore unity.”

So far, this appeal to historical parallels has mostly fallen on deaf ears. Since the crisis in Ukraine flared up, Putin, who cut his teeth as a KGB agent in Dresden and speaks fluent German, has been on the phone with German chancellor Angela Merkel, who grew up behind the Iron Curtain in East Germany and speaks fluent Russian, more than any other world leader. But just as Merkel, like many others in the West, may