Far-right AfD lawmaker visits Moscow to negotiate Russian gas return

AfD deputy parliamentary group leader Beatrix von Storch confirmed his visit in comments to Deutsche Welle (DW) on Sept. 21.

"Frohnmaier was in Moscow and spoke personally with Mr. Miller of Gazprom," she said.

"Naturally, we are interested in reestablishing trade. We need affordable energy and the broadest possible pool of suppliers, so we believe it is in our fundamental interest to receive supplies from Russia as well — which is why we are conducting these negotiations."

The direct outreach aligns with public statements made on Sept. 9 by AfD co-leader Alice Weidel during general budget debates in the Bundestag, where she explicitly demanded an immediate return to Russian energy imports.

"We need cheap natural gas from Russia. We will work toward this," Weidel told lawmakers, while indirectly assigning blame to the Ukrainian government for the September 2022 explosions that disabled the Nord Stream underwater gas pipelines linking Russia to Germany.

Reuters earlier reported that Kirill Dmitriev, economic adviser to Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, had initiated coordination with AfD party leadership to organize a formal bilateral conference on re-establishing Russian natural gas contracts, with sources indicating that high-level talks could take place around March 2027.

Prior to Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Moscow accounted for more than one-third of Germany’s crude oil imports and over half of its total natural gas consumption.

AfD's pro-Russian energy track record

Nord Stream reactivation calls: In April 2026, the Alternative for Germany publicly demanded the restoration and reopening of the undamaged sections of the Russian Nord Stream offshore pipeline infrastructure.

Opposing aid for Ukraine's grid: In May 2026, the party formally opposed a federal plan to dismantle and transfer a decommissioned gas-fired power station located in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania to Ukraine to support its bombed power grid.

Push for normalisation: AfD member of parliament Leif-Erik Holm insisted that bilateral relations between Berlin and Moscow would inevitably normalize following the conclusion of the war in Ukraine, arguing that "Europe will once again purchase Russian gas."