BERLIN — A top adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin has invited politicians from the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party to an economic forum in June in an illustration of how the Kremlin is cultivating ties with Germany’s far right.
At least two AfD members of the Bundestag, Germany’s lower house of parliament — lawmakers Markus Frohnmaier and Steffen Kotré — are set to attend the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum after receiving invitations, according to three party politicians with knowledge of the situation.
“We are confident that pragmatic cooperation will help strengthen your business, political, and cultural ties for the benefit of a just world and a secure future,” reads an invitation to one AfD politician seen by POLITICO’s Berlin Playbook and signed by Putin adviser Anton Kobyakov. The letter also stresses that Putin is expected to attend the forum.
AfD national co-leader Alice Weidel sought to tamp down on party lawmakers’ trips to Russia ahead of two state elections in western Germany earlier this year, calculating that overtly pro-Putin displays would not play well with voters in those states. But the planned attendance of relatively senior AfD politician Markus Frohnmaier at the forum in June suggests the party leadership may be shifting course ahead of two state elections in eastern Germany set for September.
Voters in the former East Germany are more likely to favor closer ties to Russia, and the AfD is far ahead in polls in both states where elections will be held.
Stefan Keuter, an AfD lawmaker authorized to approve party travel requests, said he would sign off on Frohnmaier and Kotré attending the forum.
“Politically speaking, there’s absolutely no reason not to,” Keuter said.
Before Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea, the annual forum in St. Petersburg — sometimes dubbed “Putin’s Davos” — regularly attracted German political heavyweights including Angela Merkel, who attended in 2013. But the forum is now shunned by mainstream European leaders.
AfD lawmaker Kotré sparked controversy last November when he attended a BRICS conference in Sochi despite pressure within his party to cancel the trip.
But ahead of the two eastern state elections in September, AfD leaders have renewed their calls for closer ties with Moscow, including a call for the resumption of cheap natural gas flows from Russia.
