Many people in Germany do not want their country drawn into a confrontation with Russia, retired Colonel Viktor Baranets, a military commentator for Komsomolskaya Pravda, told NEWS.ru.

According to Baranets, many Germans can see the course chosen by the current leadership of the Federal Republic of Germany and are not prepared to back it. He said a significant part of the educated younger generation understands that this is not something they want to support. He also pointed to rallies attended by thousands, where demonstrators have urged the German government to stop what he described as its anti-Russian fervor.

At the same time, Baranets argued that there are still people in Germany who have never come to terms with the country’s defeat by the USSR. In his view, their attitudes have essentially remained unchanged since the Nazi era.

Commenting on remarks by German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, the retired colonel said such rhetoric suggests that the Federal Republic of Germany is returning to ideological patterns associated with Hitler’s Germany. Baranets noted that, at the time, the USSR was seen as the main obstacle to Berlin’s military-political and economic ambitions.

Pistorius had earlier said that the Bundeswehr must become the strongest army in Europe. Germany views the rearmament of its forces as preparation for a possible armed conflict between NATO countries and Russia.