German AfD Leader Says Putin No Threat Warns About Poland Instead

AfD leader Tino Chru­pal­la claimed Putin’s Rus­sia pos­es no threat to Ger­many while warn­ing that Poland poten­tial­ly does. On 12 Novem­ber 2025, Politi­co report­ed that the Alter­na­tive for Ger­many co-leader stat­ed on Ger­man pub­lic tele­vi­sion that Putin has­n’t done any­thing to me and I don’t see any dan­ger to Ger­many from Rus­sia, cit­ing Poland’s refusal to extra­dite a Ukrain­ian cit­i­zen as an exam­ple of Pol­ish threat amid main­stream politi­cians por­tray­ing AfD as fifth col­umn pro­mot­ing Krem­lin inter­ests. The arti­cle begins:

A leader of the far-right Alter­na­tive for Ger­many (AfD) par­ty said Russ­ian Pres­i­dent Vladimir Putin’s Rus­sia does­n’t pose a threat to his coun­try — but that Poland poten­tial­ly does. The com­ments, which echo Krem­lin mes­sag­ing, come at a time when cen­trist Ger­man politi­cians are increas­ing­ly warn­ing that the AfD is using its ris­ing influ­ence to act as a mouth­piece for Putin inside Ger­many — a claim AfD lead­ers strong­ly deny. Putin “has­n’t done any­thing to me,” Tino Chru­pal­la, the co-leader of the AfD, said on Ger­man pub­lic tele­vi­sion. “I don’t see any dan­ger to Ger­many from Rus­sia at the moment.”

Read more: https://www.politico.eu/article/germany-afd-leader-tino-chrupalla-russia-vladimir-putin-no-threat-warning-poland/

The Alter­na­tive for Ger­many (Alter­na­tive für Deutsch­land, AfD) is a right-wing pop­ulist and nation­al-con­ser­v­a­tive polit­i­cal par­ty found­ed in 2013 by a group of econ­o­mists, jour­nal­ists, and for­mer mem­bers of the Chris­t­ian Demo­c­ra­t­ic Union (CDU) in response to dis­sat­is­fac­tion with Chan­cel­lor Angela Merkel’s man­age­ment of the euro­zone cri­sis and her per­ceived lack of alter­na­tives to main­stream policies.

Read more here: https://www.global-influence-ops.com/wiki/alternative-for-germany-alternative-fur-deutschland-afd/

Key Points

• AfD co-leader Tino Chru­pal­la stat­ed on Ger­man pub­lic tele­vi­sion that Putin has­n’t done any­thing to me and I don’t see any dan­ger to Ger­many from Rus­sia, while cit­ing Poland as a poten­tial threat due to its refusal to extra­dite a Ukrain­ian cit­i­zen sus­pect­ed of Nord Stream pipeline sabotage.
• Con­ser­v­a­tive chair­man of the Bun­destag’s intel­li­gence over­sight com­mit­tee Marc Hen­rich­mann stat­ed that Rus­sia is nat­u­ral­ly exert­ing obvi­ous influ­ence in par­lia­ment, espe­cial­ly in the AfD, to spy and obtain sen­si­tive infor­ma­tion, claim­ing the AfD is grate­ful­ly allow­ing itself to be used for Putin’s betrayal.
• AfD co-leader Alice Wei­del has sought to pol­ish the par­ty’s image and attempt­ed to stop AfD politi­cians from attend­ing the BRICS inter­na­tion­al con­fer­ence in Sochi, Rus­sia, sig­nal­ing a grow­ing rift inside the par­ty over how far sup­port for Rus­sia should go.
• Ger­man cen­trist politi­cians are increas­ing­ly por­tray­ing the AfD as a par­ty rep­re­sent­ing Russ­ian inter­ests from inside Ger­many, with some argu­ing the Krem­lin is tak­ing advan­tage of the par­ty’s access to offi­cial infor­ma­tion for espi­onage purposes.

AfD Foreign Policy: Germany’s Far-Right Party’s Russia and China Ties

The Alter­na­tive for Ger­many (AfD) has cul­ti­vat­ed exten­sive for­eign pol­i­cy align­ments with author­i­tar­i­an regimes while posi­tion­ing itself with­in the Glob­al Nation­al Con­ser­v­a­tive Alliance that pro­motes nation­al­ist nar­ra­tives across Europe and Amer­i­ca. Ger­many’s intel­li­gence ser­vice des­ig­nat­ed the AfD as right-wing extrem­ist in May 2025, enabling sur­veil­lance of par­ty activ­i­ties nation­wide and trig­ger­ing diplo­mat­ic ten­sions when US Sec­re­tary of State Mar­co Rubio labeled the move “tyran­ny in disguise.”

The par­ty’s pro-Russ­ian ori­en­ta­tion marks a dra­mat­ic rever­sal from 2014, when the AfD firm­ly sup­port­ed NATO and transat­lantic coop­er­a­tion. Cor­rec­tiv’s inves­ti­ga­tion revealed the par­ty’s 2024 Euro­pean man­i­festo omit­ted NATO entire­ly while demand­ing Ger­many seek observ­er sta­tus in the Shang­hai Coop­er­a­tion Organ­i­sa­tion dom­i­nat­ed by Rus­sia and Chi­na. This “sys­tem­at­ic shift” appears in par­ty man­i­festos, par­lia­men­tary motions, and provoca­tive vis­its by AfD politi­cians to Moscow and Russ­ian-occu­pied ter­ri­to­ries even after the Ukraine inva­sion. AfD MEP Max­i­m­il­ian Krah pre­dict­ed strength­en­ing ties with Hun­gary’s Fidesz par­ty while warn­ing that “woke pol­i­tics” would lead to pover­ty and crisis.

The Orga­nized Crime and Cor­rup­tion Report­ing Project iden­ti­fied the AfD as a key ally for Rus­si­a’s Inter­na­tion­al Agency for Cur­rent Pol­i­cy, which orga­nizes anti-NATO protests, escorts Euro­pean del­e­ga­tions to Crimea, and push­es EU par­lia­ments to end sanc­tions. A joint inves­ti­ga­tion by The Insid­er and Der Spiegel revealed Russ­ian cit­i­zen Vladimir Sergien­ko prox­ied mon­ey and instruc­tions to AfD politi­cians fil­ing con­sti­tu­tion­al com­plaints against Ger­many’s weapons sup­plies to Ukraine. Mul­ti­ple senior mem­bers have appeared on Russ­ian state tele­vi­sion, with Stef­fen Kotré claim­ing Ger­man main­stream media sought to turn Ger­mans against Russia.

France24 report­ed that Krah’s par­lia­men­tary assis­tant Jian Guo was arrest­ed in April 2024 for espi­onage, while Petr Bystron faced inves­ti­ga­tions over par­tic­i­pat­ing in Russ­ian dis­in­for­ma­tion oper­a­tions. The FBI ques­tioned Krah over alleged Krem­lin-linked pay­ments dur­ing a US vis­it. Despite AfD admi­ra­tion for Putin’s gov­er­nance, MEMRI analy­sis high­light­ed con­tra­dic­tions between par­ty prin­ci­ples and Russ­ian real­i­ty. The par­ty’s rad­i­cal­iza­tion extends to transna­tion­al far-right net­works, with politi­cian Lena Kotré sched­uled to speak at a UK Home­land Par­ty con­fer­ence after dis­trib­ut­ing weapons banned in Britain.

Exter­nal References:
• Alter­na­tive for Rus­sia: How the AfD is sys­tem­at­i­cal­ly turn­ing towards Rus­sia — Correctiv
• Has Ger­many’s far-right AfD become a gate­way for Chi­nese and Russ­ian spies? — France24
• How the AfD’s Pro-Russ­ian Stance is Reshap­ing East Ger­man Pol­i­tics — Blooms­bury Intel­li­gence and Secu­ri­ty Institute

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