Moscow to host German far-right lawmakers

BERLIN: Germany's far-right AfD party will hold talks with the Russian foreign ministry and visit a vaccine research centre on its second visit to Moscow in three months, the AfD's parliamentary group said Tuesday.

Party leader Alice Weidel heads the three-person delegation which "has travelled to Moscow" and will be in Russia until Friday, the group said in a statement.

The trip is set to include talks with the Russian central bank, foreign ministry and Duma parliamentarians, as well as a visit to the Gamaleya research institute where Russia's Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine was developed.

The AfD hoped to help "deepen and improve" German-Russian relations, said Weidel.

She added that the party's aim was "to finally end economic sanctions" on Russia.

The visit is the second time an AfD delegation has travelled to Moscow in a matter of months.

Weidel's co-leader Tino Chrupalla met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in December, as part of a visit during which he too criticised EU sanctions on Russia.

The latest trip comes as the AfD challenges a decision by Germany's domestic intelligence agency to put the party under nationwide surveillance for posing a threat to democracy.

Last week, German media reported that the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) was to classify the anti-Islam, anti-immigrant AfD as "a suspected case" of right-wing extremism, a designation which would allow BfV agents to monitor the party.

The move has since been blocked by an administrative court in Cologne, which ruled that the BfV had to await the outcome of the AfD's legal challenge.

The AfD has previously been accused by German media of acting in Moscow's interests.

In 2019, European media reported that AfD lawmaker Markus Frohnmaier could become "absolutely controlled" by Russia and act in Moscow's interests.

The BBC report was the result of a joint investigation into Russian documents with the German magazine Der Spiegel, the German TV channel ZDF and the Italian newspaper La Repubblica.