As of: February 2, 2024, 3:45 p.m
By: Kilian Beck
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Press
Split
Research shows that the Russian secret service could have a contact in the Bundestag.
Interior Minister Faeser reacts.
Berlin - An employee of the AfD member of the Bundestag Eugen Schmidt is said to have had contact with a colonel from the Russian secret service FSB.
Spiegel
researched this
together with the portal
The Insider.
According to this, Schmidt's employee Vladimir Sergiyenko is said to have asked FSB Colonel Ilya Vechtomov for "financial support" for a lawsuit by the AfD against arms deliveries to Ukraine.
Der Spiegel wrote this, citing “European investigative authorities”.
Sergiyenko denied the allegations.
He has been on a Ukraine sanctions list for months.
The suspect and the AfD faction deny everything
According to the report, Sergiyenko approached Vechtomov in March 2023 with the idea of filing a lawsuit.
The aim was to make “the government’s work” more difficult.
Vechtomov asked about it again at the beginning of May.
“We are following the plan.
“It’s not easy, but we’re making progress,” Sergiyenko is said to have replied.
The AfD has actually been suing the Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe against the federal government's arms deliveries since last July.
When asked by
Spiegel
, the Bundestag faction said it knew nothing about the events surrounding Sergiyenko and was financing the lawsuit itself.
Eugen Schmidt (m.) during a visit to Russian-occupied Crimea with other AfD MPs in 2018. (archive image) © Sergei Malgavko/TASS
The suspect Sergiyenko called the events “fictitious” and that Vechtomov did not exist for him.
Eugen Schmidt told the magazine that these were “unsubstantial allegations”.
The suspected FSB officer could not be reached.
Sergiyenko and Schmidt recently attracted attention through trips to Russia and participation in propaganda programs on state television.
During a customs check in April 2023, Sergiyenko was found to have 9,000 euros in cash and a Russian passport.
He is said to have kept this secret when he was naturalized in Germany, reported Der
Spiegel
.
That's why the Berlin Interior Senate is trying to revoke his German passport.
His house ID card for the Bundestag has already been temporarily blocked.
Faeser: “Moscow’s extended arm” must not reach into parliaments
Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) made a rather general statement regarding the case: “Moscow’s extended arm must not reach into our parliaments,” she told the Funke media group.
“The current reports should therefore worry everyone who has not previously taken this danger seriously.” It has long been clear “who allows themselves to be harnessed by Putin's propaganda machine,” added the SPD politician.
The “unifying interest,” according to Faeser, is to destroy trust in our democracy and undermine support for Ukraine.
There are “major overlaps” between Russian propaganda and narratives represented on the right-wing fringe.
(kb with afp)