Putin’s war of aggression has fundamentally changed the German-Russian relationship. This is especially a special topic for those people who grew up in the GDR. Because what the USA were to many in the west, the Soviet Union was to many in the east: “the big brother”. And now? The invasion of Ukraine by the Russia calls old certainties into question, rocked convictions, and runs like a rift through families.

In “Russia, Putin and we East Germans”, the ARD journalist and host Jessy Wellmer embarks on a very personal journey through the east of Germany. Born in 1979 in Güstrow in Mecklenburg, the Russian war of aggression also caused intensive discussions in her family which ultimately were the cause for this film. How do the East Germans think with regards to Russia? Why is there often a greater deal of closeness to Russia here? And what does it say about the divide which still exists in the German populace more than 30 years after the fall of the wall?