The five Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) politicians said their aim was “to see the humanitarian situation on the ground”, but were asked to give details of their visit to the party leadership, which apparently knew nothing about it in advance. The party’s deputy leader, Peter Boehringer, said the trip was not made on behalf of the AfD. Three of the group are members of the state legislatures, two from Saxony-Anhalt and one from North Rhine-Westphalia. In a statement posted on his Facebook and Telegram accounts, Christian Blex of the AfD in North Rhine-Westphalia, one of the travelers, posted a pin showing an intertwined German and Russian flag. Christian Blex posted a pin showing the interlocking flags. Photo: Christian Blex / Facebook The TAZ daily called it “particularly insidious,” in light of recent reports of mass graves discovered in Izium, that the party chose to describe its visit as a humanitarian research trip. The US-based Robert Lansing Institute for Global Threat and Democracy Studies (IGTDS), which describes itself as a non-partisan, non-profit public policy research organization, said the trip was under the auspices of Russian military intelligence. members of which would accompany the politicians to Donbass. The institute was the first to release the information. Hans-Thomas Tillschneider, co-head of the AfD’s Saxony-Anhalt branch, and Daniel Wald, also a member of the Saxony-Anhalt state legislature, issued a statement through the AfD faction at the assembly, stressing that the party wanted to “see her eyes” beyond reporting from mainstream media reports, “especially those from public broadcasters,” which she said she viewed critically. According to the IGTDS, the politicians’ visit took place between September 20 and 28. They were to fly to the Russian port of Rostov-on-Don and travel from there to the occupied Donbas region. The AfD has a reputation for its pro-Russian, sometimes pro-Putin stance. The traveling politicians are known for their support for maintaining German-Russian relations despite the war, including the lifting of sanctions against Russia. They also expressed support for the opening of the Nord Stream II pipeline, which was intended to provide a new supply of natural gas from Russia to Germany in addition to the flow from Nord Stream I, before it was scrapped by Chancellor Olaf Scholz, just. before the start of the invasion of Ukraine. Tillschneider has described Putin as a “genuine guy, a real man with a healthy framework of values.” Andriy Melnyk, Ukraine’s outgoing ambassador to Germany, shared the IGTDS report on Twitter ahead of its official publication. He accused the politicians of supporting Russia’s “war of extermination” with their trip, urging the head of Germany’s federal office for the protection of the constitution, Thomas Haldenwang, to “act now” and take action against the politicians. Melnik accused the head of the AfD’s Saxony-Anhalt branch, Martin Reichart, of being “Putin’s fifth column in Germany”. The AfD leadership appeared to be deeply critical of the trip, but its expressions of outrage were limited to the group’s failure to register it or get their approval in advance, despite the fact that they had traveled to Russia. He called on the team to “fully disclose” the organization behind the trip and its execution. It is not the first such visit of its kind. Blex traveled to Russian-annexed Crimea in 2018. Since the invasion of Ukraine, AfD politicians have frequently given interviews to Russian state media. In one such interview, Eugen Schmidt, a member of the Bundestag, referred to Germany as an “illegal state”.
