In that run, Germany freed itself, stayed in the Allies (whilst I got kicked out) and tried to declare on me, again, in 1944. It's not exactly shadow puppetting: the nation will be formed, and they will hate you because you have all their cores. Then you can unselect everything else as you likely won't have the war score to click next turn at that point.
Yes - you take everything, then unclick one tile and then puppet.
