AfD denies claims one of its MPs is ‘under Russian control’

The nationalist Alternative for Germany party (AfD) has been rocked by allegations that one of its MPs is a Russian intelligence asset.

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Markus Frohnmaier denied any links to the Kremlin on Friday after alleged Russian intelligence documents emerged which describe him as “under our absolute control”.

The BBC, Spiegel magazine and ZDF television in Germany, and Italy’s La Repubblica published what they claim is a Russian strategy paper from April 2017 detailing plans to influence policy and public opinion in the European Union.

The paper names Mr Frohnmaier as a candidate in German national elections later that year and recommends “material and media support” for his campaign.

If he is elected, it concludes: “We will have our own MP under our absolute control in the Bundestag”.

Mr Frohnmaier denied any knowledge of the strategy paper in a statement issued by his lawyers and said he could not explain why he was named in it.

He said he was “never under the control of any third party” and had “never  solicited financial or media support in Russian political, economic or civil circles”.

In a separate interview with the BBC he suggested the paper could be fake.

The AfD denied any of its MPs are foreign intelligence assets. “All claims to the contrary are false. We have a member sitting on the parliamentary intelligence oversight committee so we have full information on this,” a spokesman said.

The AfD became the first nationalist party to sit in the German parliament since the 1960s after making dramatic gains in 2017’s election campaigning on an anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim platform.

It has faced repeated questions over alleged links to Russia after trips to the country by senior party figures emerged, but the allegations against Mr Frohnmaier are the most serious yet.

The MP has been outspoken in his support for Russian positions over Crimea and other matters.

The media organisations who published the alleged Russian strategy paper say they obtained it from the London-based Dossier Centre, an organisation funded by Russian businessman and Kremlin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

They claim the paper was attached to an email to Vladimir Putin’s presidential office from Petr Premyak, a former naval counterintelligence officer and former member of the upper house of the Russian parliament.

The allegations come days after Jacob Rees-Mogg, the Brexiter MP, was accused of quoting the far-Right after he tweeted Brexit comments from the AfD’s parliamentary leader, Alice Weidel.

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