Russia prepares fake news campaign with AfG

Amid the debacle of the Russian-led intervention in Ukraine and destabilization in Russia, the Kremlin has called on its spies in Western Europe to conduct intelligence and psychological operations to cover up new war crimes being committed by the Russians in the Kharkiv region of Ukraine discredit Ukraine and its allies and stop military aid. Moscow believes that Germany is most vulnerable to its influence, because of the economic ties between the Russians and the German elite, and because of some politicians who are actively exploited by Russian intelligence. AfD party members are the most active in defending Russia’s interests. In December 2019, the RLI covered the expense Ulrich Oehme, member of the AfD, to legitimize Russian proxy regimes in Donbass.

The AfD was already recognized as a “needs test” at the beginning of 2019, just like the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and the administrations of the states of North Rhine-Westphalia, Baden-Württemberg, Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Saxony, Thuringia, Bremen and Lower Saxony tried to get the AfD – Verify state offices.

After Germany denied the connection between the AfD and the Russians back in 2017, Thomas Haldenwang, the head of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), claimed on January 15, 2022 that he would collect data on the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party endeavors to check whether it is compatible with the Basic Law.

Junge Alternative is already being supported by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution of the city of Bremen and the federal states of Lower Saxony and Baden-Württemberg. The BfV is now clarifying the suspicion that the AfD youths have connections to the right-wing extremist “Identitarian Movement”, which represents the concept of a closed European culture or identity.

This became known September that some deputies from Saxony-Anhalt and North Rhine-Westphaliaa representative of the AfD will come to visit Russian-occupied Donbass on September 20-28, 20202, under the auspices of the Russian military Intelligence that coordinates the work with the AfD. Some AfD members from this region were already involved in Russian operations.

In February 2018, ten MPs from the German state parliaments of North Rhine-Westphalia, Berlin and Baden-Württemberg representing the AfD illegally visited Russia-annexed Crimea to discuss lifting sanctions imposed by Western states. Over the next month, an AfD member Ulrich Oehme, accompanied by German far-right journalist Manuel Ochsenreiter, observed the illegitimate presidential election in Crimea as part of the fake election observation mission organized by the chairman of Russia’s parliamentary committee on international affairs and the chairman of the board of international public affairs Foundation “Russian Peace Foundation” Leonid Slutsky.

This visit aims to promote Russian understanding of the situation in Donbass, while discrediting the Ukrainian army and highlighting Russia’s humanitarian efforts. At the same time, German politicians should distract from Russian war crimes with counter-accusations against Ukraine and foreign combatants. The AfD visit was also intended to express disinformation about Ukraine using Western military aid to target civilians and infrastructure.

The visit was announced by AfD member Christian Bleks on September 12. The delegation is expected to consist of:

• Natalie Veitmember of the Alternative for Germany, North Rhine-Westphalia;
• Svetlana Risto, Party member Alternative for Germany, North Rhine-Westphalia;
• Dr Christian BlexMember of the North Rhine-Westphalian state parliament of the Alternative for Germany;
• Daniel WaldMember of the Landtag of Saxony-Anhalt, representative of the Alternative für Deutschland party;
• dr Hans Thomas TillschneiderDeputy Chairman of the Alternative for Germany parliamentary group in the state parliament of Saxony-Anhalt.

The delegation will apparently fly to Rostov-on-Don, Russia, and then be driven to occupied Donbass. The AfD delegation will most likely or supposedly be allowed to meet the Ukrainian POWs, as Russia has an excuse to deny similar access in the future to the UN or the Red Cross. The AfD should therefore fill the gap on the maintenance of prisoners of war by the Russians and deny information about torture, extrajudicial executions, forced amputations and other violations of the Geneva Convention by the Russians. We believe that the delegation will be taken to the villages in eastern Ukraine that were recently occupied by Russians, where they will receive pseudo-evidence of local support for Russians. In order for the delegation to see this, Moscow is planning a targeted distribution of humanitarian aid to the locals.