Putin Envoy and Germany’s AfD Plot Meeting to Restart Russian Gas Supplies

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s top economic envoy, Kirill Dmitriev—head of Russia’s sovereign-wealth fund—has begun preparations with the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) leadership to meet next year about resuming Russian gas deliveries to Germany. The meeting could take place as early as March and may be hosted in Israel, the United Arab Emirates or India. AfD co-leaders Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla are expected to attend, while Dmitriev will represent Moscow. Organisers say the summit will proceed only after a peace framework between Russia and Ukraine is secured, and they hope to involve the United States, though a senior U.S. official confirmed that U.S. representatives Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner have not been invited.

Reuters

Before the 2022 sanctions triggered by Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russia supplied more than a third of Germany’s crude-oil imports and more than half of its natural-gas needs. The shutdown of the Nord Stream pipelines after explosions in September 2022 caused a €50 billion energy-crisis for Germany, prompting a search for alternative supplies. The AfD, Germany’s most popular party in recent polls despite being excluded from governing coalitions, has framed the call for “cheap energy from Russia” as a pragmatic solution to high energy prices and a way to showcase foreign-policy competence.

Reuters

Roderich Kiesewetter, a Christian-Democratic MP, warned that the meeting could embolden pro-Russian factions within his party and that using energy as a “hybrid weapon” would jeopardize European security.

Reuters

• “Involving Germany as a key European ?economy can create a broader platform for discussing issues that are significant both for these countries and for the rest of the world,” — Robert Agee, President of AmCham Russia

Reuters

• “Germany cannot become dependent on Russia again,” — Michael Kellner

Reuters