Near East and Middle East (whole Asia from Mediterranean sea to contemporary Pakistan, Kazakchstan, including these countries) Balkans, North Africa and its eastern coast, Spain, Portugal, Sicilia, Indonesia.
I believe the answer is the second option.
Factor 1: Who decides to run for office and what advantages candidates have over one another.
Factor 2: Incumbency. Usually the incumbent (the person already serving in the office) has a large advantage over challengers, unless negative events have the voters wanting to get rid of incumbents.
Factor 3: The way congressional districts are drawn. There have been court cases recently about "gerrymandering" -- attempts by a party in power to draw district boundaries in ways that will serve to perpetuate that party's power.
Instead Russia became closer to "France," and to some extent "Great Britain," due mostly to the fact that Russia wanted above all else protection of its borders--which Germany could not provide.
