The success of Germany’s far right Alternative for Germany (AfD) in state elections could herald a disaster for Ukraine, European victory for Vladimir Putin, and a stampede of greed-over-democracy orchestrated by one man. Kirill Dmitriev is to Donald Trump’s envoys, Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, what Putin is the the 47th president - their favourite and much favoured Russian. What Putin gives Trump - the thrill of proximity to unlimited power - Dmitriev offers to America; unlimited potential wealth.
He is the head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, Moscow’s sovereign wealth government slush pot, and he has close links to the AfD. There was unbridled delight in Moscow with the success of the AfD over the weekend. Dmitriev called the result a win that "humiliates the arrogance, narrow-mindedness, warmongering, ineptitude and hypocrisy" of Chancellor Friedrich Merz's governing coalition.
The AfD, seen by German intelligence as an extremist organization, has enjoyed (among other things) Russian support for its social media campaigns to win the elections in Saxony-Anhalt, according to German and other European intelligence sources. In addition, AfD foreign-policy spokesman in the Bundestag, Markus Frohnmaier, has been an enthusiastic supporter of Putin’s policies in Ukraine since before the 2022 full scale invasion. And on June 3 he met Dmitriev in St Petersburg after meeting the head of Russia’s oil giant, Gazprom, at Russia’s “International Economic Forum”.
"Along with AfD’s Deputy Chairman Markus Frohnmaier, I discussed the economic cooperation with Germany, including restarting the Russia-Germany-US business dialogue," he added. The same day, June 3, Dmitriev confirmed, he was also in touch (as he often is) with Witkoff and Kushner. That future is shaping up nicely for the Kremlin.
Dmitriev, who is unelected and holds no official government role in Russia, has been a regular guest of Kushner and Witkoff in Miami, ostensibly to work on a peace deal with Ukraine. No such sojourn has been offered to any Ukrainian. Notoriously, Dmitriev is reported to be offering advantageous terms for American businessmen if they backed the unfreezing of $300 million of Russian assets held in Europe.
He later even reportedly dangled the idea that there was “$14 trillion” in business opportunities for the US in Russia if sanctions, imposed over its invasion of Ukraine, were lifted and normal business could resume. Dmitriev was the main escort for Witkoff and Kushner when they visited Moscow at the weekend on the latest of numerous visits to the Russian president. After all the fanfare, there was no significant outcome from their first visit to Kyiv the next day.
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