MOSCOW, December 24. /TASS/. Christian Democratic Union (CDU) leader Friedrich Merz, who is running for Germany's chancellor, may become the West’s leading figure in its standoff with Russia, Oleg Bondarenko, the director of the Progressive Politics Foundation, told a TASS news conference dedicated to the study Russia in 2025-2045: External Contours of Development in New Geopolitical Realities.

"Next year Germany’s new chancellor will take office. The likely successor, Friedrich Merz, is a German 'Americanized' and a steadfast NATO proponent," the analyst said. "In this sense, he may assume the leading figure's role in the confrontation with Moscow next year."

At the same time, Bondarenko said, without affordable energy resources, the decline of the German economy will continue with no chance of stopping in the foreseeable future.

"It will be necessary to seek investments and resources. Where? In the East," the expert explained.

For this, he said, the FRG and, probably, other European Union countries will have to abandon "the unified concept of the EU and the recommendations of Brussels" and build "autonomous economic and political relations with the global East, including Russia, of course."

Early elections in Germany are due on February 23, 2025. A new government will be formed, and a new chancellor will be elected afterward.