Many parts of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) support Russia, its foreign policy, and its allies. For example, AfD members and activists were listed as keeping close ties with Russian politicians and receiving financial benefits in an OCCRP investigation of Russia's International Agency for Current Policy.[1]

Positions

Ukraine crisis and war in Donbass

In March 2019, then coparty leader Alexander Gauland said in an interview with the Russian newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda that they consider the War in Donbass to be a Ukrainian internal matter, and that Germany should not get involved in the internal affairs of Ukraine or Russia. He also said the AfD is against Western sanctions imposed on Russia.[2]

AfD rejects EU sanctions against Russia over the Ukraine conflict.[3]

In September 2022, it was reported that five AfD politicians were planning to travel to occupied Donbas in eastern Ukraine.[4][5]

In August 2023 The Insider and Spiegel published a joint investigation into actions of Russian citizen Vladimir Sergienko who proxied money and instructions from Russia to AfD politicians, who filed a constitutional complaint in Germany against its supplies of weapons to Ukraine. Sergienko coordinated a number of other AfD initiatives, such as sending letters to the Pope and drafting an anti-Ukrainian declaration of Harald Weyel in PACE.[6]

Media

The Russian state foreign media agency Russia Today has since 2014 a German speaking outlet, which spread right wing conspiracy theories and several times promoted AfD-politicians and their positions. Often German AfD politicians got interviewed in the German and International RT programs.[7] The daily show The Missing Part ("Der fehlende Part") with which RT claims to broadcast "what others do not say, what others do not show". RT invites such guests as AfD supporter Ken Jebsen, a journalist who was kicked out of public broadcaster RBB after antisemitic charges had been raised against him. RT Deutsch was reporting intensively about pro-Russian Berlin Monday demonstrations, which are closely linked to the right-wing populist publicist Jürgen Elsässer, editor-in-chief of Compact. Compact is the de facto voice of AfD.[8]

Initiatives

Vadar

AfD Politician from the federal level founded the association “Association for the Prevention of Discrimination and Exclusion of Russian-Germans and Russian-speaking Fellow Citizens in Germany” (Vadar e.V.) in June 2022.[9] The association attests that Germany has an “anti-Russian mood” and wants to offer legal help to “Russian-Germans and Russian-speaking fellow citizens” who would be discriminated against or excluded by the war of aggression.[10]

According to a report in the Sächsische Zeitung, Vadar shares a bank account with an institution that is majority Russian-owned. According to German public broadcaster ARD, German security authorities are investigating the association connections to Russian authorities.[10]

Protagonists

Markus Frohnmaier

Frohnmaier had meetings with the youth organisation of United Russia "The Young Guards" up from 2016.

Markus Frohnmaier has been an AfD member of the Bundestag since 2017. The ZDF, Spiegel and other media had reported that the Kremlin had specifically supported Frohnmaier to promote Russian interests in the Bundestag. In a strategy paper of the Presidential Administration of Vladimir Putin, which is to come from the time before the general election in 2017, it is said that Frohnmaier "will be under absolute control". Further on "our people could also set up a non-profit organization, which will be registered with the Bundestag and can be promoted through the pro-Russian positions."[11][12]

Udo Hemmelgarn

Udo Hemmelgarn has been an AfD member of the Bundestag since 2017. He supports the Assad government and demands German support of the Russian involvement in Syria. In 2019 Hemmelgarn organized a secret trip of four AfD members of the Bundestag to Syria. He is a strong supporter of a "new Syria-policy" in the Bundestag. For AfD that meant backing the Assad government and the supporting Russian government.[13]

Steffen Kotré

Steffen Kotré has been an AfD member of the Bundestag since 2017. In February 2023, Kotré appeared in a Russian TV show of Vladimir Solovyov. Kotré stated that German mainstream media were doing all they could to turn Germans against Russia; he also criticised German weapon deliveries to Ukraine.[14][15]

Stefan Kreuter

Stefan Keuter has been an AfD member of the Bundestag since 2017. He is known for his strong ties to the Russian government. In May 2022 he took part in a conference entitled "Economy against sanctions" with representatives of Russian politics and business. One of the topics discussed was how best to deal with the international sanctions.[16]

Robby Schlund

Robby Schlund has been an AfD member of the Bundestag since 2017. He delineates himself as a member of the right-wing factional cluster 'Der Flügel' (the wing) around Björn Höcke[17] Under the chairmanship of Robby Schlund, for the first time in years, a German-Russian parliamentary group in 2019 was making efforts to establish better contacts from Germany with Russia.

Eugen Schmidt

Eugen Schmidt has been an AfD member of the Bundestag since 2021. Schmidt was empyloying Wladimir Sergijenko "as translater and media worker". Sergijenko is a pro-Russian activist in Germany. German magazine Spiegel titeld "Moscow's Man in the Bundestag" in 2023.[18] According to western secret services Sergijenko, the man could influence the AfD on behalf of the Russian government. He may also provide the party or its environment with money. In April and June 2023, after the man had traveled to Russia, German customs found him with 9,000 euros in cash.[19]

Martin Kühne

In August 2023 Martin Kühne, an AfD councillor of Baden-Baden, was charged by prosecutor of defacing two cars with Ukrainian number plates by painting large swastika and "fuck UA" text on them. The incident happened in January and March 2023. After the charges became public Kühne handed his resignation as councillor.[20]

Harald Weyel

Harald Weyl has been an AfD member of the Bundestag since 2021 and deputy treasurer. At the beginning of May 2023, a video from Weyel was distributed in which he reported that Russian Orthodox churches in western Ukraine were being “attacked”. The video was embedded in a pro-Russian campaign on Facebook.[10]

Literature

  • A. Shekhovtsov (2017): Russia and the Western far right: Tango Noir. Routledge.

References

  1. ↑ Tkachenko, Martin Laine (Eesti Ekspress), Cecilia Anesi (IrpiMedia), Lorenzo Bagnoli (IrpiMedia), and Tatiana. "Kremlin-Linked Group Arranged Payments to European Politicians to Support Russia's Annexation of Crimea". OCCRP. Retrieved 2023-02-04.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  2. ↑ hesnokov, Edvard (9 March 2019). Глава партии «Альтернатива для Германии» Александр Гауланд: Ситуация в Донбассе — это внутреннее дело России и Украины (in Russian). Komsomolskaya Pravda. Retrieved 9 March 2019.
  3. ↑ NACHRICHTEN, n-tv. "AfD-Mann führt Delegation nach Russland". n-tv.de.
  4. ↑ "Far-right German politicians accused of pro-Putin 'propaganda trip'". TheGuardian.com. 20 September 2022.
  5. ↑ Loveday Morris; Kate Brady (2022-09-20). "Far-right German party members to tour Russian-held regions of Ukraine". The Washington Post. Washington, D.C. ISSN 0190-8286. OCLC 1330888409.
  6. ↑ "Exclusive: Far-Right German Parliamentary Aide Tasked by Russia with Stopping Leopard Tanks to Ukraine". The Insider (in Russian). Retrieved 2023-08-05.
  7. ↑ "Wie der MDR der AfD und Moskau zugleich half". Der Tagesspiegel Online.
  8. ↑ Luther, Carsten (November 19, 2014). "RT Deutsch: "Relativ egal, was dieser Mann sagt"". Die Zeit.
  9. ↑ Riedel (NDR/WDR), Von Lennart Banholzer, Florian Flade, Sebastian Pittelkow und Katja. "Verein mit AfD-Bezügen: Gemeinsam für Russland". tagesschau.de (in German). Retrieved 2023-09-09.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  10. 1 2 3 "Wie AfD-Politiker von einem prorussischen Propaganda-Netzwerk profitieren". correctiv.org (in German). 2023-06-23. Retrieved 2023-09-09.
  11. ↑ ONLINE, ZEIT (April 7, 2019). "Markus Frohnmaier : SPD will Russland-Verbindungen von AfD-Politiker überprüfen lassen". Die Zeit.
  12. ↑ Zeitung, Süddeutsche (5 April 2019). "Russland wollte offenbar AfD-Abgeordneten beeinflussen". Süddeutsche.de.
  13. ↑ ONLINE, tagesschau.de. "INVESTIGATIV - AKTUELLE NACHRICHTEN". tagesschau.de.
  14. ↑ "Ukraine-Liveticker: Leopard-1-Panzer wurden laut Melnyk schon im April angeboten". FAZ.NET (in German). 2023-02-03. ISSN 0174-4909. Retrieved 2023-02-03.
  15. ↑ Philipp Sandmann (2023-02-02). "AfD-Politiker tritt in Propaganda-Show des Kreml auf". ntv Nachrichtenfernsehen (in German). Retrieved 2023-02-03.
  16. ↑ rbb, Andrea Becker. "AfD-Abgeordneter spricht auf russischer Konferenz". tagesschau.de (in German). Retrieved 2023-09-15.
  17. ↑ Eigenrauch, Sylvia (September 13, 2017). "Direktkandidaten für den Wahlkreis 194 Robby Schlund (AfD)". www.otz.de.
  18. ↑ Baumgärtner, Maik; Chernyshev, Alexander; Lehberger, Roman; Müller, Ann-Katrin; Höfner, Roman; Wiedmann-Schmidt, Wolf (2023-07-18). "Outrage over Pro-Russian AfD Worker: Moscow's Man in the Bundestag". Der Spiegel. ISSN 2195-1349. Retrieved 2023-09-06.
  19. ↑ "Enge Verbindungen nach Moskau: Mitarbeiter von AfD-Abgeordnetem verbreitet prorussische Propaganda". Der Tagesspiegel Online (in German). ISSN 1865-2263. Retrieved 2023-09-06.
  20. ↑ "Baden-Baden: AfD-Stadtrat Martin Kühne tritt zurück - Hakenkreuz auf ukrainischen Autos". Der Spiegel (in German). 2023-08-30. ISSN 2195-1349. Retrieved 2023-08-30.
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