In Lower Saxony, the pressure is increasing on Prime Minister Stephan Weil's SPD to clarify its pro-Moscow attitude of the past few years.

The occasion is research by the FAS on party donations from Gerhard Schröder, Doris Schröder-Köpf and the former Russian Honorary Consul Heino Wiese.

"Stephan Weil needs to clarify the true extent of the Russia connection in the SPD, especially in Lower Saxony," said the FDP state chairman Stefan Birkner of the FAZ. The reporting shows "extensive entanglements and gives reason to clarify the connections of the Lower Saxony SPD to the Kremlin".

Justus Bender

Editor in the politics of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sunday newspaper.

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Reinhard Bingener

Political correspondent for Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Bremen based in Hanover.

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In particular, the origin of the funds for the payments known to date must be clarified and "the obvious suspicion that these are of Russian origin and serve Russian interests must be dispelled".

Birkner also asked the SPD state chairman Weil to create “transparency about payments below the detection limit”.

The CDU, which governs together with the SPD, also sees a need for explanation.

"It is very noticeable who made a not inconsiderable donation to the SPD and when," said CDU General Secretary Sebastian Lechner of the FAZ

According to research by the FAS, the SPD received donations in 2016 from the company of the Russian Honorary Consul Heino Wiese.

According to the party's annual report, the "Wiese Consult" donated a total of 14,000 to the SPD, of which, according to FAS research, 10,000 euros went directly to the Lower Saxony state association.

In the years before he was appointed honorary consul, Wiese had made private donations to the SPD: in 2009 he donated 10,250 euros, in 2011 it was 10,532 euros and in 2015 even 13,500 euros.

Wiese denies that such donations "have anything to do with influencing Russia politics".

CDU General Secretary Lechner said of the FAZ payments that after the occupation of Crimea in 2014 at the latest, "one could have expected the Lower Saxony SPD under Stephan Weil to be more sensitive to donations from an honorary consul in the service of Russia".

As the former state manager of the SPD in Lower Saxony, Wiese organized election campaigns for Gerhard Schröder in the 1990s and is considered a confidant of the former Chancellor.

According to its own information, “Wiese Consult GmbH” takes care of “German-Russian economic relations” and advertises with its “diverse exchange formats (evening salons, conferences) in the field of business and politics”.

At an event hosted by the Russian Honorary Consul Wiese in Gifhorn in 2018, Prime Minister Weil also called for a free trade agreement with Moscow instead of economic sanctions, which he described as “counterproductive”.

At the meeting in Gifhorn, Lower Saxony's migration commissioner Doris Schröder-Köpf (SPD) also gave a speech.

Schröder-Köpf was first elected to the Lower Saxony state parliament in 2013.

According to FAS research, the then-wife Gerhard Schröders donated a total of 32,735.26 euros to the SPD in 2013, of which 25,000 euros alone were a single donation to the SPD city association in Hanover, 4,600 euros were elected official taxes, and around 3,000 euros were small donations.

In the entire SPD in Germany, there was only one person in 2013 who donated more than Schröder-Köpf.

She also came from Hanover and worked for the SPD there.

In 2014, according to her lawyer, Schröder-Köpf transferred another total of 27,000 euros to the SPD.

This also put the member of parliament in the top group nationwide.

Even after the annexation of Crimea in 2014, Schröder-Köpf maintained her pro-Moscow stance and said in 2017 in the now banned Russian propaganda medium "Sputnik" that Vladimir Putin was an "extremely differentiated, a very clever man".

Schröder-Köpf's lawyer emphasizes that there is no basis for the suspicion "that funds from Russian sources flowed to the SPD via our client".

Former Chancellor and gas lobbyist Gerhard Schröder also donated larger sums to the SPD, between 2011 and 2017 at least around 69,000 euros.

During this time, Schröder was allowed to promote pro-Moscow politics several times at events organized by the Lower Saxony SPD and the state government.