When Putin was first elected two decades ago, a lot of my Austrian friends correctly saw in him a threat to Europe. I don't buy it that the German government didn't know him better than the average citizen did. They are just trying to ride whichever wave presents itself at any given moment. In the days of the Fukushima crisis, being against nuclear would get you the most votes. In the days of the Ukraine crisis, being against gas would get you the most votes. While Germany is the one looking bad here, it's actually a structural problem of every democracy in the world.
The other option is to put too much trust in the hands of dictators. Over the course of hundreds of years, that actually seems to work less well (eg: China - given their potential, they should have never had to play catch up). But every once in a while, there are a few decades where an individual comes along that plays all of their cards right and engages in a long game that vastly outperforms the 4-year back and forth circus of democracies.
But I don't trust myself to reliably recruit a front desk colleague, let alone someone with nuclear codes. So democracies it is.