AfD national co-leader Alice Weidel sought to tamp down on party lawmakers’ trips to Russia ahead of two state elections in western Germany earlier this year, calculating that overtly pro-Putin displays would not play well with voters in those states. But the planned attendance of relatively senior AfD politician Markus Frohnmaier at the forum in June suggests the party leadership may be shifting course ahead of two state elections in eastern Germany set for September.
Voters in the former East Germany are more likely to favor closer ties to Russia, and the AfD is far ahead in polls in both
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