Eurasia Press & News
The German far-right “Alternative für Deutschland” (AfD) recently achieved a remarkable electoral success: More than 10.3 million citizens, or 20.8 percent of all participating voters, granted it a record 152 seats in the Bundestag,[1] German parliament’s lower chamber.
The party is considered not only ultra-right, but is almost always called “pro-Putin” since its leadership calls for lifting of all sanctions imposed on Russia,[2] and its members have been quite often spotted in Moscow. [3] I would say, that not only the AfD, but many other European extreme right forces are accused of maintaing close ties to the Kremlin – and their followers most commonly praise President Putin for his promotion of “traditional values” and “sovereignty,” as well as for his opposition to the “decadent West.”
President Putin has become an idol for many radical political forces in Europe but one of the paradoxes that I see in this phenomena is that in fact there are few reasons for their supporters to become Putin’s admirers – first and foremost since he is not stuck to almost anything the “far-right” stand for, and if someone wants to prove this, she or he should look more closely at Putin’s deeds and compare them with the basic promises that the non-mainstream parties are giving.
AfD’s Basic Documents
If one looks at the basic political issues outlined in AfD’s two basic documents – its Grundsatzprogramm (“Basic Program”), to which I will refer as GSP[4] and its 2025 Bundestagswahlprogramm 2025 (“Electoral Program”),[5] to which I will refer as BWP25, it is easy to see that the AfD stands for some quite important and generally reasonable things like the limitation of terms a politician may occupy any government or elected position,[6] full freedom in putting forward candidates at every level of elections, disregarding all possible limitations on their registration,[7] and, last but not least, a wide practice of national referendums to be organized as often as they are in Switzerland.[8]
I would remind the reader here that since Russian President Vladimir Putin assumed power in Russia in 2000, no national referendum has been conducted in the Russian Federation. He has been in power for more than a quarter of a century and has been reelected five times.[9] Around a third of elected officials – governors and deputies – occupy their posts for 10 years or more.[10] It should be also mentioned that dozens of restrictions have been implemented, allowing the authorities to ban more than 120,000 candidates from different elections.[11] However strange it might be, the AfD stands for principles incompatible with Putin’s political practices, which have been reinstated in Russia in recent years.
The differences are equally striking in the judiciary. The AfD advocates an independent judiciary with elected judges; it calls for focusing on the rights of victims of accused criminals and not on excusing or defending the latter;[12] one of the most important issues is outlawing data protection for the perpetrators.[13] All these goals contradict the practices established by Putin: The judges in Russia are either appointed by the President or pre-selected by him,[14] they get their apartments, chauffeured cars, and other privileges from the state,[15] the advocates and lawyers are forced to comply with dozens of requirements and are often persecuted for defending “the enemies of the state.”[16] There are thousands of cases in which law enforcement agents allow perpetrators to avoid punishment because of their connections to local or federal officials and the victims face tremendous difficulties in trying to open criminal cases against the wrongdoers;[17] and officials have tried to introduce an official ban on disclosing the nationality or ethnic origins of the perpetrators “for the sake of national unity.”[18] Once again, nothing can be more divergant than AfD ideals and Putin’s Russian reality.
The most important – and therefore provocative – are AfD’s conceptions of national identity and immigration. The party declares its unconditional support for the freedom of faith, worship, and conscience,[19] but states that political Islam is incompatible with both German culture and the people’s value system as it presents a major danger to a Western Christian society,[20] and therefore it should not be promulgated and supported by the use of public and foreign funds.[21] The party’s program says that criticism of either Islamic doctrine or the Muslim practices cannot be punished, restricted, or even labelled as “Islamophobia.”[22] Accordingly, the party stands against the “uncontrolled” immigration into Germany,[23] both from outside the EU and from poorer EU nations since it believes the country needs a complete overhaul in its strategy of immigration via asylum seeking,[24] in its vision of integration of foreigners into German society, and in its laws considering application for German citizenship. [25]
The Difference From Putin’s Russia Is Striking
Moreover, it calls for revisiting the system of social benefits that immigrants enjoy when settling in Germany. These are, I would say, the most attractive points of the AfD’s slogans that contribute to its rising popularity among the voters – but here again the difference with Putin’s Russia is striking. During the last 25 years, the Russian authorities have allowed more than 30 million people from mostly Muslim post-Soviet states to enter Russia almost without any control,[26] and no less than seven million of them have been granted Russian citizenship since then as the pace of the trend is only accelerating.[27] The share of the Muslim population in Russia’s large cities has increased from three to four to 20 to 30 percent of the total,[28] and nowadays in Moscow suburbs up to a third of students in elementary schools possess poor or marginal knowledge of the Russian language.[29] Because of Putin’s admiration for “Russia’s territorial integrity,” which he presumably restored by reconquering Chechnya after its 1990s mutiny, political Islam has become a formidable force in the country, [30] and the criminal cases opening because of “insults to Muslim faith” are growing in numbers.
The most famous case happened in 2023, as Nikita Zhuravel’, a young ethnic Russian man from Volgograd after posting a video on internet featuring Qu’ran burning, was arrested and – against all Russian laws – transferred to Chechnya,[31] where he was beaten by the 15-year-old local leader’s son and sentenced to 13 and a half years in prison for insulting the believers’ faith and high treason. The son, by the way, was awarded numerous decorations from the heads of many Russia’s predominantly Muslim republics like Chechnya, Tatarstan, Kabardino-Balkariya, and Karachaevo-Circassia, not to mention religious honors.[32] Furthermore, the ritual sacrifice of sheep and other animals has become common in Moscow and other cities during Muslim holidays.[33] Though such practices are formally declared illegal, the local police rarely try to stop them.
Another focal point for the AfD is the development of a competitive business environment[34] and the facilitation of a tax system[35] that would allow the country to do better economically. It is widely admitted that the German economy is losing many of its traditional advantages due to extra-high labor costs, excessive government regulation, and ever-mounting ecological restrictions.
The party calls for tax cuts, subsidies to medium and small businesses,[36] development of engineering education,[37] and modernizing the system of consumer protection, including food labelling, etc.[38]
I would note that the AfD does not call for obstruction of competition with foreign goods and services; rather it says that all international economic activities should be executed in full compliance with WTO rules[39] even while Germany should advocate for the organization’s deep reform, and that domestic and foreign companies must be put on an identical legal footing.[40] The stated goal is to turn Germany into a country of proprietors and entrepreneurs.[41] Again, there is little here to compare with Putin’s economic agenda: From his first years in the Kremlin, Putin has been promoting the nationalization of the leading Russian enterprises and tightening state control over “strategic” branches of the economy.[42] During Putin’s term in office the Russian bureaucracy has more than doubled in numbers from 1.1 to around 2.4 million people;[43] the federal budget’s receipts have grown more than tenfold; Russian firms were granted special privileges, while those originating from “unfriendly” countries these days are facing many challenges,[44] and even arbitrary nationalization (since 2022, more than $170 billion in foreign assets have been confiscated, which I have defined as “the robbery of the century”)[45] – and all this, together with the failing “import substitution” in all the important sectors of the Russian economy, is what President Putin believes is the right and sunny road toward securing Russia’s “economic sovereignty.” [46]
Russia’s “Traditional Values”
What may one address atop of all these issues? Perhaps “traditional values,” which in Putin’s Russia are “defended” through massive assaults on the rights of gay, lesbian, and transgender people, similar to the early years of the Third Reich? [47] Or, as some emphasize, the “normal family,” as a union between a man and a woman, which is now enshrined in the rewritten Russian Constitution? [48] Here, I would say, one may see some obvious similarities as the family is declared a union of father, mother, and children.[49] However, AfD’s programs say nothing about LGBT+ people. They just condemn attempts for changing gender in young people and the promotion of trans-culture in children.[50] Much more attention is paid to increasing support of single parents and mothers working full time.[51] The only point, which echoes both Putin’s views and those of most conservative politicians throughout the world, is the criticism toward abortion policies and calls for this women’s right to be significantly limited. [52]
The Russian experience with promoting “traditional values” in family life, I should stress, began with “de-crimimalizing” domestic violence in 2017,[53] which resulted in a surge in beatings and even killings of women in Russian households (in 2021-2022, those cases accounted for 71 percent of all murders of women in the Russian Federation).[54] Later, it evolved into promoting early marriages, giving birth “as early as possible,” even among school and college students,[55] complications of abortions in both state-run and private clinics,[56] outlawing of LGBT+ groups, the persecution of their members, and even into killings of gay people in North Caucasus republics.[57]
The results, nevertheless, are not too encouraging – since 2017, Russia’s population is declining fast, with the number of births in the Russian Federation retreating back to the levels of the year 2000, when one of the lowest figures in the entire history of modern Russia was recorded,[58] while the natural population decline is approaching 600,000 people per year, making it the single most important factor forcing the government to stimulate immigration even further.[59]
For rather a long time, it has been possible to compare the goals set up by Europe’s “extreme right” and the deeds already accomplished by President Putin, who is believed to be their ideal statesman, but even some formal comparison suggests that the differences are huge and visible in all crucial issues. And here comes the central question that I would like to address.
There is no doubt that Putin’s Russia has been supporting – not only ideologically, but sometimes financially as well – much of the European far-right parties and groups.[60]
Dozens of books and hundreds of articles have been written on this matter, as their authors tried to undermine public support for the extreme right while focusing on their connections to “terrible” Putin, who is sometimes called a fascist leader and is rightly blamed for his aggressive and imperialistic wars launched against the post-Soviet countries. Nevertheless, such a strategy has seemingly not succeeded, as the public support for the “extreme right” is on the rise all across Europe. Therefore, I would propose their critics and opponents to change their strategy and instead of focusing on Putin’s cruelty and anti-Western ideas, to analyze the differences that were just explored, telling the right parties’ supporters in Europe not so much about Putin’s imperialism as about his pro-Islamic and pro-immigration policies, about his desperate failures in demographic initiatives, his focus on strengthening the power of bureaucracy and increasing the government regulation, on his discrimination of the foreign companies and miserable returns of his “import substitution” practices. To my mind, the best way for undermining Putin’s popularity among Europe’s far right is to expose not so much his opposition to the liberal values or to the European way of life, but to these parties’ basic values and aims for showing their members and adherents that Russia’s leader promotes quite different attitudes and pushes forward policies, completely contradicting what the far-right politicians in Europe proclaim.
Putin’s influence on the far-right politicians might be explained by financial and organizational support as well as by the common idea of undermining the European Union and the promotion pf the concept of national sovereignty. That would hardly be enough to gain the support of these parties’ millions of supporters if they were to be better informed of the enormous differences between Russia’s realities and the proposals they are voting for in the European elections. With his views and approaches, Herr Putin would never be a loyal AfD member – and this is something of which the European right should be well aware.
[1] Dw.com/en/german-election-results-and-voter-demographics-explained-in-charts/a-71724186, February 27, 2025. [2] Newsweek.com/germanys-musk-endorsed-afd-calls-good-relations-russia-2032117, February 17, 2025. [3] Reuters.com/world/europe/germanys-afd-asks-its-lawmaker-clarify-russian-cash-report-2024-04-03/, April 3, 2024. [4] Afd.de/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Programm_AfD_Online_.pdf [5] Afd.de/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/AfD_Bundestagswahlprogramm2025_web.pdf [6] GSP #1.5.4; BWP25, p. 137. [7] GSP #1.5.2; BWP25, p. 135. [8] GSP #1.1; BWP25, p. 130. [9] Kommersant.ru/doc/7399514, December 27, 2024. [10] Rbc.ru/politics/14/05/2024/66432fb69a79479c3155b114, May 14, 2024. [11] Istories.media/investigations/2021/06/08/kak-vlasti-ostavili-rossiyan-bez-vibora/, June 8, 2021. [12] GSP #3.4 [13] GSP #3.6 [14] Consultant.ru/document/cons_doc_LAW_648/088c561f85a4c5855516c48adc2774a5f576b0d1/ [15] Pravorub.ru/articles/15824.html [16] Interfax.ru/russia/1003384, January 17, 2025. [17] Kommersant.ru/doc/7532496, February 23, 2025. [18] Interfax.ru/russia/804261, November 22, 2021. [19] GSP #7.6; BWP25, p. 121 [20] GSP #7.6.1; BWP25, p. 121. [21] GSP #7.6.3; BWP25, p. 122-123. [22] GSP #7.6.2; BWP25, p. 123. [23] GSP #9.1.2-9.2. [24] GSP #9.1.1; BWP25, p. 103-104. [25] GSP #9.7; BWP25, p. 110. [26] Publications.iom.int/system/files/pdf/WMR-2022.pdf [27] Finexpertiza.ru/press-service/researches/2022/ros-grazhdanstv/ [28] Tatar-inform.ru/news/v-rossii-naibolshee-chislo-musulman-prozhivaet-v-kazani-krasnodare-i-voronezhe-558897, June 20, 2017. [29] Rbc.ru/society/10/12/2024/6756de059a794709f109a29b, December 10, 2024. [30] Golosislama.com/news.php?id=25907, January 20, 2015. [31] Sledcom.ru/news/item/1793857/?print=1, May 20, 2023. [32] Lenta.ru/news/2023/09/25/izbil/, September 25, 2023; V1.ru/text/gorod/2024/11/25/74374478/, November 25, 2024; Svoboda.org/a/izbivshiy-arestanta-syn-kadyrova-poluchil-desyatuyu-nagradu/33092828.html, August 26, 2025. [33] Msk.kp.ru/daily/24591/760175/, November 16, 2010. [34] BWP25, p. 56. [35] BWP25, p. 57. [36] GSP #10.1. [37] BWP25, p. 164. [38] GSP #10.11.1-10.11.2. [39] GSP #10.1. [40] GSP #10.3. [41] BWP25, p. 12-13. [42] Vedomosti.ru/business/articles/2019/10/15/813716-gosudarstvo-20-let, October 15, 2019; Frankmedia.ru/171515, August 14, 2024. [43] Rtvi.com/news/siluanov-predlozhil-sokratit-chislo-chinovnikov-i-uvelichit-im-zarplaty/, August 14, 2024. [44] Vedomosti.ru/business/articles/2019/10/15/813716-gosudarstvo-20-let, October 15, 2019; Frankmedia.ru/171515, August 14, 2024. [45] Nzz.ch/meinung/der-groesste-raubzug-aller-zeiten-russlands-enteignungen-ld.1741007, June 13, 2023. [46] Rbc.ru/politics/19/05/2022/6285f0c79a7947c127bab983, May 19, 2022. [47] Amp.meduza.io/feature/2022/10/12/nikakih-gomoseksualistov-v-etoy-strane-net, October 12, 2022. [48] Base.garant.ru/10103000/ca02e6ed6dbc88322fa399901f87b351/ [49] BWP25, p. 144. [50] BWP25, p. 150-151. [51] GSP #6.5, BWP25, p. 147. [52] BWP25, p. 148-149. [53] Forbes.ru/news/338693-putin-podpisal-zakon-o-dekriminalizacii-semeynogo-nasiliya, February 7, 2017. [54] Readymag.website/algorithmsveta/2020-2021/ [55] Rtvi.com/news/zdorovee-budet-v-gosdume-obsudili-ideyu-rozhat-kak-mozhno-ranshe/, September 7, 2024. [56] Meduza.io/feature/2023/12/11/vse-silnee-kazhetsya-chto-kreml-reshil-polnostyu-zapretit-v-rossii-aborty-neuzheli-vlasti-gotovy-na-eto-poyti, December 11, 2023. [57] Currenttime.tv/a/28429586.html, April 14, 2017. [58] Dw.com/ru/rozdaemost-v-rf-upala-do-urovna-2000-goda/a-71462342, January 30, 2025. [59] Forbes.ru/society/531380-rosstat-soobsil-ob-uvelicenii-estestvennoj-ubyli-naselenia-na-20-4-v-proslom-godu, February 21, 2025. [60] See Shekhovtsov, Anton. Tango Noir: Russia and the Western Far Right, London, New York: Routledge, 2018)
