Russian propaganda celebrates German far right

The German far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party has long been a Russian propaganda darling.

The party's win in Thuringia and its second place in Saxony have led to celebrations on Russian state television. 

Promoting peace on Russia's terms?

In Russia, propagandists and state television pundits seem to see the results for the far right and far left in Thuringia and Saxony as also being somewhat a win for Moscow.

The massive gains of the AfD and the good results of the populist leftist Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) have been one of the most discussed topics in the Russian state media over the past days.

TV reports framed the story as if the results were almost entirely due to Germany's Russia policies. The parties that make the governing coalition on the national level, all saw heavy losses in the two regional elections. According to one reporter, this is because of Berlin arming Kyiv, and because of the consequences of sanctions, the rejection of Russian energy, and the muted response to the Nord Stream pipelines explosions.

Populist historian Nikolai Starikov explained in a talk show why Russia should be satisfied with the election results in eastern Germany. "Wagenknecht is basically proposing the same foreign policy as the AfD — peace on our terms on Ukrainian territory," he said.

Results serve Russian propaganda purposes

Both the AfD and BSW are indeed among the fiercest advocates in the EU for a cease-fire in Ukraine and the lifting of sanctions against Russia.

Austrian international relations professor and Russia expert Gerhard Mangott says that having such parties in the German government would be considered an advantage by Russia. According to him it is one of three reasons why Russia is so happy with the results.  

"The second reason is that the strong performance of the far left and far right in these state elections destabilizes the political system in Germany," Mangott continues. So far, Germany is the second-largest provider of financial aid to Ukraine after the US and weakening this support is in Russia's best interest.

This leads to the third reason which is the Kremlin's desire to show ordinary Russians how politically unstable democracies can be and how things are getting worse in the West while Russia stays politically firm.

Far right 'a Western propaganda cliche?'

Thuringian AfD leader Björn Höcke isn't hiding his pro-Russian stance. That's how one Russian correspondent in Germany commented on Höcke's decision to visit a polling station in Thuringia in his vintage Lada, a Russian car.

For the correspondent, Höcke is not a far-right politician but instead, a "euroskeptic" and "ultrapatriot."

The popular "60 Minutes" talk show didn't actually describe the AfD as a far-right party, and during the program, writer Nikolai Starikov called on Russian media to stop repeating what he says is merely a Western propaganda cliche.

"Why are you trying to link the AfD with Hitler? Nowadays, Western propaganda labels anyone they can't buy as a fascist or a Nazi. Whom do they call that? They call us that, Trump, any of their opponents," Starikov said on the show.

This is in line with what Russian President Vladimir Putin said during the St Petersburg Economic Forum when asked about the AfD. While he does call the Ukrainian government Nazis, he said he didn't see signs of neo-Nazism within the AfD.

Why does Russia defend the far right?

Meanwhile in May, a German court ruled that former history teacher and now senior AfD politician, Björn Höcke, had intentionally used a banned Nazi slogan in his political campaign.

Alexander Gauland, another top AfD politician, a few years ago tried to downplay the atrocities of the Nazi regime by saying that "Hitler and the Nazis are just a speck of bird poop in over 1,000 years of successful German history."

Yet none of this seems to bother the leadership of Russia, a country that lost around 26 million people in WWII.

"Considering that Putin is supposedly fighting against Nazis in Ukraine and claims that the government there consists of Nazis he, of course, should do everything possible to conceal that the AfD in Germany holds far-right, and in some cases, Nazi-like views," Gerhard Mangott explains.

Edited by: Andreas Illmer