There are presidential elections in Russia in a week. OSCE election observers are not permitted. Now AfD MPs have apparently been invited as “experts on democracy”. Three want to accept the invitation.
AfD member of the Bundestag Stefan Keuter tells his Facebook followers that he is leaving with a good feeling. That was in March 2018, when he accompanied the election of Vladimir Putin as Russian president as an “election observer” on behalf of the Russian State Duma.
While experts subsequently spoke of a “technical legitimation measure” rather than a proper election, Keuter explains that everything was carried out “freely, secretly and equally”.
His parliamentary group colleague Ulrich Oehme was also there at the time, praised the elections and later had to admit that his travel expenses had been paid for by the Russian parliament. A total of eight AfD members of the Bundestag were in Russia as “observers” in 2018.
Russian Citizens’ Chamber invites AfD MPs
It seems that the Russian leadership was very happy with this. President Vladimir Putin’s fourth re-election is coming up in a week. Apart from him, only candidates who are considered to have no chance or who even support Putin have been accepted so far. Russia has not invited international observers from the OSCE – but AfD MPs are welcome.
The “Civil Chamber of the Russian Federation” invited Bavarian AfD members of the state parliament as “democracy experts” to the election in Russia. This is what it says in an email that… Bavarian Radio is present. This is signed by MPs Andreas Jurca, Elena Roon and Ulrich Singer.
They send their email to the AfD federal executive committee, the Bavarian state executive committee and their colleagues in the state parliamentary group in order to justify their trip to Russia. For them, this is an opportunity to “discuss any democratic deficits or electoral procedures.” Furthermore, the primary purpose of the trip was to “implement the demand for diplomatic dialogue supported by the party line.”
Citizens’ Chamber is not considered independent
The Citizens’ Chamber was founded in 2005 and is intended to advise the Russian Parliament. Represented are celebrities, intellectuals and artists. In theory, civil society should be involved in political decisions. In fact, the Citizens’ Chamber plays no role in terms of power politics and is not considered independent.
For Gerhard Mangott, Professor of International Relations at the University of Innsbruck, it is clear that the Citizens’ Chamber’s invitation is about state interest. Russia-friendly Western parliamentarians should certify that the election took place properly. “This is intended to send a signal internally and externally: Western politicians also certify to us that everything went smoothly,” says Mangott.
Jurca, Roon and Singer reject such allegations. You write to him BR: “We believe that, given the current situation, the Russian government does not seriously believe in a legitimizing effect of the visit of some Western politicians.” It is a standard task of the Citizens’ Assembly to invite foreign “democracy experts”.
AfD federal executive board not happy
Initially it was planned that the Citizens’ Assembly would also finance the trip. The MPs now announce that they have decided to bear the costs themselves, “precisely in order to avoid allegations of bias.” Will they speak publicly after the election? This, they write, is determined “by our observations in Russia.”
The AfD’s federal executive board doesn’t seem at all happy about it. He got in touch via email on Monday. The correspondence is that BR and the ARD capital studio before. It was decided to “strongly” recommend that the three MPs “not undertake the trip to the Russian Federation planned for March 13-19, 2024”.
The Federal Executive Board claims that decisions on the AfD’s foreign policy matters rest solely with it. The party leadership put this in writing in September 2022 after some AfD members of the state parliament traveled without prior consultation towards the Russian-occupied areas in Ukraine.
Always more Russia-friendly
The suspicion that AfD MPs could be exploited by Russia comes at a bad time for the AfD. The Süddeutsche Zeitung has just reported on an internal report from the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, according to which the party could possibly be classified as “certainly right-wing extremist”. According to the SZ, the intelligence service also cites the “relationship with Russia” as a new point.
In recent years, the AfD has positioned itself more and more Russia-friendly. Numerous research shows close connections between the party and Russia.
“We represent the interests of our party”
Since the beginning of the Russian war of aggression, the AfD has also rejected any arms deliveries to Ukraine. Co-party leader Tino Chrupalla used his speech in the special session of the Bundestag shortly after the Russian invasion to thank Russia for the reunification of Germany. Chancellor Olaf Scholz “reactivated the Cold War” with his lecture, said Chrupalla.
He described the 100 billion package for the Bundeswehr as an “arms race”. The three MPs from Bavaria now want to take advantage of the fact that the AfD has since then constantly called for talks to be started again with Russia.
“We are bringing the diplomacy and dialogue demanded by the party to Russia and thus representing the interests of our party,” write Singer, Roon and Jurca in their response to the federal executive board.
Conscious confrontation with the party leadership
And not only that, they consciously seek confrontation with the party leadership, which they inform by email: It is noticeable that the decision is limited exclusively to them, “even though other colleagues have also received invitations from the Russian Federation.” They are also calling for a resolution to be introduced at the next federal party conference that calls for distancing oneself from Russia, “if this is now in line with the current party line.”
The Russian leadership probably doesn’t care about the simmering internal party dispute. It all looks as if the three members of the state parliament are fulfilling the role assigned to them despite the criticism from the federal executive board: “We will keep the appointments that are planned as part of the citizens’ council’s standard program,” they explained when asked BR.