Zoom Image
Pro-Kremlin activist Vladimir Sergienko in Internet video in front of the Bundestag
Photo: Vladimir Sergienko / Telegram
Politicians from several parties are calling for consequences from the affair involving a Kremlin-affiliated employee of AfD member of parliament Eugen Schmidt. Vladimir Sergienko maintains close contacts with Moscow and sought support there for a lawsuit against German arms deliveries to Ukraine, as reported by SPIEGEL and The Insider.
"Russian agents of influence have no place as employees in the German Bundestag," says FDP parliamentary group deputy Konstantin Kuhle. "In the present case, the Bundestag administration must withdraw the access authorization." The SPD interior politician Sebastian Fiedler suggests that in the future "all employees of the deputies would have to go through a security check before hiring." Those who work in the heart of democracy must not work against it."
For Marcel Emmerich (Greens), the case of Sergienko shows "that the AfD not only swings right-wing extremist speeches, but knowingly allows supporters loyal to Putin to act in its right-wing network". As a result of the affair, CSU member of the Bundestag Silke Launert demands "that the Bundestag, as the master of the house, needs even stricter regulations on access to its own properties".
The FDP domestic politician Sandra Bubendorfer-Licht expressed a similar view. "The German Bundestag must also be protected from within against the influence of authoritarian and criminal regimes," she says. "The revocation of the house ID should not be taboo in the case of clear indications and a clearly given danger situation."
Vladimir Sergienko denies acting on behalf of Russia. He maintains "manifold contacts", but is neither a "master spy" nor a "mouthpiece of any propaganda".
akm/sve/wow