I know it seems counter intuitive but think about why Germany would side with a diminishing US; the petro dollar was dealt 2 deadly blows in Nov, its on the way out and the US paradigm as we know it is in its last days. Now think of energy security for Germany, developing export markets and who has massive commodity potential and thus real wealth.... Russia is not the USSR and the 20th century isn't that relevant now, the sands are shifting and there are new fortunes to be made. The next 5-10 years will be very interesting and probably very deadly for some as well.