Russia has flooded the German-speaking segment of social media platforms with propaganda and is using its with the far-right party Alternative for Germany (AfD) to infiltrate the country’s political institutions, German Journalists Association (DJV) chair Mika Beuster said in an interview for Ukrinform.
“They’ve flooded social media, especially Telegram. But Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok are also saturated with propaganda spreading disinformation and fear. The general public lacks media literacy or understanding of how this works. Russia is also trying to infiltrate political institutions such as Alternative for Germany,” the journalist said.
He remarked that most AfD members have close ties to Russia and some of them are suspected of espionage.
“Some are under investigation for taking Russian money to promote propaganda. They want to spend less on defense, provide less support — or none at all — to Ukraine, and go back to buying cheap Russian gas and oil as a reward for closer ties with Russia,” he emphasised.
Mika Beuster said that some participants in an AfD party conference accused Ukraine of war crimes and denied that Russia was the aggressor.
In Beuster’s view, the danger of the party’s narratives lies in the repetition. He believes that when people keep hearing the same claims year after year, some may start to perceive them as true.
Earlier, the Bundestag strongly criticised AfD deputies’ trip to the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, accusing them of promoting Russian narratives and attempting to legitimise Vladimir Putin’s regime.
