Russia Election Hacking? Germany’s Anti-Immigrant Party Leader Meets With Russian Officials

Increasing fears that Russia has been attempting to interfere with Germany’s federal elections later this year, the head of the country’s far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party this weekend met with Russian MPs with close ties to President Vladimir Putin. Frauke Petry, who has frequently called for Germany to forge closer ties with Russia, issued a statement Monday revealing she had made a trip to Moscow.

Petry met with the speaker and deputy speaker of the Duma, Russia’s parliament, who are both members of the ruling United Russia party. Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin was formerly Putin’s first deputy chief of staff and is considered a close confidant of the Russian president. It also emerged that Petry held discussions with the ultra-nationalist vice speaker of Russia’s lower house of parliament, Vladimir Zhirinovsky.

Despite accepting that his father was a Jew, Zhirinovsky has made frequent anti-Semitic comments, including suggesting that Jews provoked the Holocaust.

“During the meeting they discussed issues of cooperation between regional parliaments, inter-party cooperation, as well as the development of contacts for youth organizations,” read a statement from the Duma about the talks, according to Deutsche Welle.

Petry’s spokesman, Oliver Lang, said that the two parties did not discuss potential financial assistance, although did state that there would be more talks. France’s far-right National Front party has previously borrowed 9 million euros ($9.5 million) from a Russian bank.

The AfD has seen a boost in support following a backlash to the German government of Chancellor Angela Merkel admitting more than 1 million migrants in the past two years. In latest polling ahead of September’s election, the party was running third on around 10 percent of the vote, behind Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU) and the center-left Social Democrats (SPD).

Germany’s intelligence chief has warned that Russia is attempting to commit cyber-attacks ahead of the election. Russia has also been accused of interference in last November’s presidential election in the United States. And some U.S. lawmakers have warned that Germany and France, which holds its presidential election in April, will be targeted similarly.

“Germany, you are next. France, they are coming after you,” Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham said at the Munich Security Conference at the weekend.