Enlarge image
Tino Chrupalla: "Numerous discussions with representatives from politics and business are planned" during his visit
Photo: SEAN GALLUP / POOL / EPA
Leading AfD politicians repeatedly demonstrate their closeness to Russia.
Next Wednesday, the AfD top candidate and parliamentary group vice-president Tino Chrupalla will take part as a speaker at a conference of the Russian Defense Ministry.
As a group spokesman reported, Chrupalla is traveling to Moscow this Sunday at the invitation of the Russian government.
During his visit, which will last until Friday, "numerous talks with representatives from politics and business are planned, including representatives of German companies in Russia," the parliamentary group said.
Chrupalla saw the invitation as a sign that "our efforts to restart German-Russian relations in Moscow have fallen on fertile ground."
The Saxon member of the Bundestag, who is co-chairman of the AfD at the side of Jörg Meuthen, was received by Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov together with the AfD member Paul Hampel last December.
In March, the AfD parliamentary group leader Alice Weidel was in Moscow with two other members of her parliamentary group.
At that time, the trio met employees from the Foreign Ministry, members of the State Duma and business representatives.
The AfD defense politician and North Rhine-Westphalian state chairman Rüdiger Lucassen said he expressly supports Chrupalla's trip.
»It is a completely normal process when German politicians maintain foreign policy contacts.
The AfD stands for a policy of détente with Russia, ”said Lucassen, who was a colonel in the Bundeswehr, when asked.
Joachim Wundrak, who had retired as Lieutenant General and now wants to join the Bundestag for the AfD, said: "Anything that helps to reduce tensions should be welcome."
The German-Russian relationship is currently tense.
This can be traced back, among other things, to the conflict over Ukraine and the poisoning and subsequent imprisonment of the Kremlin opponent Alexei Navalny.
asc / dpa
