While driving back from rural work yesterday, at 19.00 I heard on @LRZinas that a pro-Moscow party had supposedly won the elections in Saxony-Anhalt, so in horror I tried to understand what that party is. I remembered that in 2000, the SPD/Die Grünen government led by Gerhard Schröder decided to gradually phase out Germany's nuclear energy. Three years later, Schröder's government began reducing the Bundeswehr from 370,000 soldiers to 250,000, and in 2005 this government signed an agreement with Gazprom on the construction of Nord Stream 1. In 2010, Angela Merkel was already in power, and her CDU/CSU/FDP coalition government set an even more ambitious goal - to reduce the Bundeswehr to 180,000 soldiers, while abolishing compulsory military service. In 2011, a decision followed to accelerate the closure of all German nuclear power plants by 2022, and together with the Russian president, Nord Stream 1 was ceremoniously launched. In 2014, Russia occupied Crimea and partially occupied Donbas, yet Merkel maintained the scale of relations with Kremlin partners. Continuing close energy cooperation with Moscow, in 2015 an agreement was signed on Nord Stream 2, despite objections from the Baltic states, Poland, Ukraine, and other Russian neighbors. During his first presidency, Donald Trump also criticized Germany's heavy dependence on Russia. In 2019, the US president signed a law sanctioning companies involved in the construction of Nord Stream 2. By 2022, Germany's dependence on Gazprom's total supplies had grown to ~55% and would likely have kept growing. Meanwhile, in 2023, as Russian planes continued to bomb Ukrainians, under the SPD/Die Grünen/FDP coalition government led by Olaf Scholz, the last 3 German nuclear power plants were successfully shut down. AfD leader Alice Weidel, who won in Saxony-Anhalt, already on 24 February 2022 unequivocally condemned Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and in August of the same year she publicly called Russia's aggression a 'völkerrechtswidriger Angriffskrieg Russlands' (Russia's war of aggression contrary to international law). Yes, although Weidel's party demands the restoration of nuclear energy and strengthening Germany's military capabilities, AfD leaders have repeatedly stressed that weapons will not end the war; negotiations are needed. But similar statements are made by the current German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who leads the CDU/SPD coalition government: 'Ein tragfähiger Frieden wird nur in Verhandlungen mit Beteiligung der Ukraine, mit Russland, den USA und Europa erreicht werden können. Anders wird es nicht möglich sein.' (A sustainable peace can only be achieved through negotiations involving Ukraine, Russia, the USA, and Europe. It will not be possible otherwise.) To reduce tension around the AfD, the organization tries to limit its members' contacts with Russia, which has also been acknowledged by Polish analysis, which nevertheless views Germany as one of the historical threats. Although the media often plays up that Weidel wants to restore Russian gas imports, in fact she calls for a return to the German energy model that was initiated by the SPD and continued for decades by both SPD- and CDU-led governments. There is no basis to think that Germany cooperated with Russia only because of gas. Germany helped the Kremlin regime prepare for the FIFA World Cup until 2018. This included designing and building stadiums and supplying equipment. Germany also remained a reliable partner of Russia in military cooperation; it continued supplying ship engines, possibly circumventing sanctions. Currently, ships with these engines are shelling Kyiv and other cities with Kalibr missiles. There is also no evidence that Weidel has personal and good relations with Putin, as the Kremlin dictator had with Schröder or Merkel. Therefore, it is hardly correct for state-budget-funded institutions to emphasize in the news that the AfD is 'pro-Moscow'.
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