Varnar för läckor mellan AFD och Kreml: ”Putinformat hål”

A large part of the right-wing populist German party Alternative for Germany (AfD) supports Russia, its foreign policy, and its allies. The AfD has been positioning itself for years in favor of close cooperation with Russia, while the European Union is viewed with skepticism or even hostility. As early as 2013, Alexander Gauland wrote a paper expressing understanding for Russia's desire to regain Crimea and comparing the loss of "holy Kyiv" to the loss of Cologne for Germany. He argued that Bismarck's Reinsurance Treaty should be a guideline: "Our relationship with Russia should always be worth carefully cultivating. We Germans sometimes forget that Russia played a positive role at key milestones in German history and saved Prussia from ruin." The German domestic secret service reported based on its findings that Russia is trying to destabilize the democratic system of Germany on many levels. According to the head of the service Thomas Haldenwang, Russian narratives are being spread by parts of the AfD and are contributing to expansion of right-wing extremism. 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. In 2023 various German media outlets such as Der Spiegel, ARD, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Die Welt, ZDF Frontal, T-Online, and Correctiv have published findings on the AfD's connections with Russia. Based on manifestos, trips, quotes and speeches, the "AfD's systematic shift" (Correctiv) towards Russia has been widely observed. In 2025, Tim Schramm, a 22-year old deputy chairman of AfD district association in Wuppertal, was found to have volunteered in the Ukrainian Army in 2024, and subsequently expelled from the party.