German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other European leaders turn a wheel with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to symbolically start the flow of gas through the Nord Stream gas pipeline in 2011. When Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock travels to Russia this week she’ll be following a path well-trodden by German officials, and it’s one that’s shown can lead to friction with its biggest western ally. As U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration looks to deter Russia from invading Ukraine, doubts are being raised about Germany’s readiness to confront President Vladimir Putin. Baerbock’s task will be to demonstrate that any questions over the new Berlin government’s resolve are misplaced. Her meeting in Moscow on Tuesday with counterpart Sergei Lavrov is part of a long tradition of German-Russian diplomacy that has sometimes seemed to the outside world to foster unusually close relations. Vladimir Putin shakes hands with the deputy technical director of Nord […]