COLOGNE, Germany – In a square beneath the twin spires of Cologne’s gothic cathedral, around 2,000 protesters gathered in September to urge Germany’s government to break with the Western coalition backing Ukraine and make peace with Russia.
“We must stop being vassals of the Americans,” rightwing German politician Markus Beisicht said from a makeshift stage on the back of a truck. The crowd clapped and waved Russian and German flags.
A lean man in camouflage trousers stood at the side of the stage, obscured from the crowd by a tarpaulin. A few meters away, a burly man in dark sunglasses stood guard. The rally’s organizers did not welcome questions. Most declined to speak when approached by reporters. One protester tried to persuade a police officer to arrest a reporter as a Ukrainian spy.
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