AfD: security risk in St. Petersburg

The St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, often referred to as “Putin’s Davos,” took place in early June with the participation of Germany’s AfD party. The start of the three-day event was overshadowed by a drone attack on Putin’s hometown by Ukraine. Members of the German Bundestag Markus Frohnmaier (spokesperson for foreign affairs), Petr Bystron, Steffen Kotré, and the Saxon party leader Jörg Urban attended the meetings.

Frohnmaier sat on a panel discussion alongside Andrei Klimov, one of the architects of Russia’s “Foreign Agent” law, Alexei Pushkov, and Maria Zakharova, reported DER SPIEGEL. Urban, Bystron, and Kotré participated in a roundtable discussion on diplomacy and cultural relations. The forum had been boycotted by German politicians since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Several German business leaders also visited St. Petersburg, as reported by t-online, including Holger Friedrich of the Berliner Zeitung. Apart from the AfD, the participation of far-right MEP Fernand Kartheiser (Luxembourg) and SOS Romania MP Diana Iovanovici-Șoșoacă was announced. Both are independents.

Politicians from the CDU, SPD, and the Green Party have criticized the participation of AfD politicians in the economic forum as a security risk, according to ARD.