Thread by @swilliamsjourno

In the 1980s an East German criminal was delivered across the Berlin Wall to fuel a tide of neo-Nazi violence that still plagues Germany today.

His name was Rainer Sonntag—and he was a Communist spy.

His handler? Vladimir Putin.

magazine.atavist.com/follow-the-lea…

Sonntag grew disillusioned with East Germany's worker's paradise—and attempted a couple of elaborate escapes.

The nation's feared secret police was always a step—and an informant—ahead. Sonntag faced an ultimatum: spy for the cops, or go back to jail.
magazine.atavist.com/follow-the-lea…

He chose espionage. The team handling Sonntag comprised a roughneck policeman, a Stasi agent with a photographic memory, and #Putin, a young KGB officer keen to sow chaos in the West.

They dispatched Sonntag across the Wall, and he delivered.
magazine.atavist.com/follow-the-lea…

Sonntag was a gifted rabble-rouser, unafraid to use his fists to terrorize ethnic minorities in an attempt to make Germany "ausländerfrei", or "foreigner-free".

But when the Wall fell and Germany reunited, Sonntag brought the hate to hometown Dresden.
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Discovering a former state full of disaffected youth, he turned the city into a no-go for PoC, and led a crusade against its sex trade—despite his own history as a pimp.

That would end in bloodshed. But it was not the end of his, or Putin's, story.
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Sonntag's influence lives on in the #AfD, #Pegida and others.

Putin, meanwhile, claims to #DenazifyUkraine. The truth: he began his career nazifying Germany.

Please read mine and @LeighBa1's @atavist story - huge thanks to @seywarddarby and @jonahogles
magazine.atavist.com/follow-the-lea…