Russia using German far-left, far-right to cut off aid to Ukraine – report
Russia has been trying to cobble together an ‘anti-war’ coalition of far-left and far-left in Germany in an effort to undermine support for Ukraine in Europe, the Washington Post reported on Friday.
Classified Russian documents, obtained by a European intelligence service, record meetings between Kremlin officials and Russian political strategists, and the Kremlin’s orders for the strategists to focus on Germany to build antiwar sentiment in Europe and dampen support for Ukraine.
The plan was first proposed by senior officials in Moscow in early September. The documents, however, do not contain any material that records communications between the Russian strategists and any allies in Germany. WP reports.
The Kremlin’s proposed strategy, according to the report, was to forge a new coalition among Die Linke, a far-left party, and the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), "two German factions with long-standing pro-Russian stances".
"Efforts to build antiwar sentiment in Germany are part of a hidden front in Russia’s war against Ukraine as the Kremlin tries to undermine Western unity and freeze the war on its terms," the Washington Post reports.
On 25 February 2023, Sahra Wagenknecht, a member of parliament for Die Linke, led a 13,000-strong demonstrators gathered at the Brandenburg Gate calling for an end to weapons supplies to Ukraine.
Among the crowd in Berlin were members of the AfD.
The documents cited by the Washington Post reveal that first Kremlin deputy chief of staff Sergei Kiriyenko assembled a group of Russian political strategists and told them that Germany was to become "the focus" of Moscow’s efforts to undermine support for Ukraine in Europe.
Earlier in April, Die Welt newspaper reported that Russia was using the dating platform Tinder for espionage in Germany.