Or maybe as someone who grew up under East German propaganda and rose to top of (West) German politics, she knows that western propaganda is just the flip side of eastern propaganda. She knows that the considerable faults of the soviet system are different but not that different to the considerable faults of western predatory capitalism. And maybe she recognizes what nearly everyone in rest of the west refuses to reocognize: Russia is not communist. Putin is a ruthless crony capitalist just like those in the US. Just. Like. Them.

Maybe Merkel also understands that the EU started as a way to end the centuries old wars on the European continent, particularly between France and Germany - and it worked. So how better to avoid war with Russia than to become trading partners? Russia has no incentive to bomb the fuck out of German industry that is buying hundreds of billions of Euros of Russian natural gas.

Russia has no incentive to destroy and then liberate Vienna again when Austria buys 80% of their natual gas from Russia.

There is one country with massive incentive to demonize Putin and try to stop Russian gas and oil sales. One country who is angry that Germany is not spending more on NATO weapons and buying natural gas at 4x the price of Russian gas.

I don't think Merkel "fell for Putin's reptilian charm." She just realized the best deal for the future of Germany, financially and militarily, is to defuse military tension through trade with Russia.