Far Right’s Ties to Russia Sow Rising Alarm in Germany
www.nytimes.com
As cases proliferate, opponents fear the Alternative for Germany party is becoming a tool of Russian influence operations to undermine support for Ukraine.

As cases proliferate, opponents fear the Alternative for Germany party is becoming a tool of Russian influence operations to undermine support for Ukraine.

To enter a secret session of Germany’s Parliament, lawmakers must lock their phones and leave them outside. Inside, they are not even allowed to take notes. Yet to many politicians, these precautions against espionage now feel like something of a farce.

Because seated alongside them in those classified meetings are members of the Alternative for Germany, the far-right party known by its German abbreviation, AfD.

In the past few months alone, a leading AfD politician was accused of taking money from pro-Kremlin strategists. One of the party’s parliamentary aides was exposed as having links to a Russian intelligence operative. And some of its state lawmakers flew to Moscow to observe Russia’s stage-managed elections.

  • Cosmonauticus@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3·
    7 months ago

    I think countries should be more alarmed that they are as susceptible to Russian far right propaganda as they are. Inside all these seemly progressive and democratic countries lies large groups that want to subjugate minority citizens or those who think differently to the point they’d give up their own freedoms

    Europeans are getting a serving of humility. When I was visiting Europe just after Trump was elected there was so much, “that could never happen here”. That kind of thinking is naive and dangerous