Two MPs from the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party will attend the BRICS-nation summit in Russia next week. The summit is scheduled to be held in Sochi and will be the first where European lawmakers will make it to the meeting. This comes amid the mounting accusations and criticism that the controversial party’s members are closely linked to the Kremlin. AfD is the opposition party in Germany, and the ruling party, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and Christian Social Union (CSU), is accusing AfD members of passing sensitive military information.
However, AfD has vehemently denied all these allegations and insists on maintaining cordial ties with Russia. The BRICS summit in Sochi, to be attended by the MPs, is a cooperation between Germany and other European countries with the member nations. Moreover, Rainer Rothfuss, one of the AfD MPs, said, “I consider it my personal mission to use every legitimate democratic means of open debate to help prevent any escalation of the conflict with Russia into NATO territory and into Germany itself.”
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The AfD party has been called far-right and extremist by the country’s domestic intelligence agency Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz (BfV). Not just the ruling party, senior leaders from other political parties criticized the MPs from Germany attending the BRICS summit. Also, More details about the meeting will be out next week after the Sochi summit.
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Senior politician Thomas Roewekamp warned that the two MPs from Germany could pass on military information at the BRICS summit. He also urged them to be questioned in parliament by being “targeted, grid-like.” Military “information that would be of great value to foreign powers, not least to Russia. Which has been continuously increasing its espionage activities and hybrid attacks against parts of Germany,” he said.
