The far-right Alternative for Germany’s ambivalent relationship to Russia is exposing rifts at the top of the party, with its two co-leaders showing sharply conflicting attitudes towards Moscow.
Co-leader Alice Weidel, a former Goldman Sachs analyst who is striving to broaden the party’s appeal among disillusioned conservative voters, publicly rebuked a group of AfD officials earlier this month for visiting Russia, the latest in a long line of such trips by party figures.
“To put it bluntly, I can’t understand what the point of that was,” she said, adding that she disagreed with the decision by the party’s foreign affairs group to approve the trip to a conference in Sochi jointly organised by President Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party earlier this month.