Kremlin celebrates AfD victory: “Part of Germany seems to be waking up”

Russian state television called it “a fantastic evening for the AfD.” The Kremlin-aligned newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta described the result of the Saxony-Anhalt state election as “a historic moment.” Across Moscow’s media landscape, the far-right party’s victory was celebrated not simply as a German political development, but as a Russian success.

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It is a fantastic evening for the AfD.

Kremlin officials also made clear that they see the AfD as a potential political ally. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on election night that Moscow had not followed the vote. Yet Russian media quickly circulated AfD leader Tino Chrupalla’s demand that sanctions against Russia be lifted.

Kirill Dmitriev, head of Russia’s Direct Investment Fund and President Vladimir Putin’s public-relations representative for the United States, said, “The AfD will rebuild Germany and Europe.” Senator Alexei Pushkov wrote on Telegram, “Part of Germany seems to be waking up.” He said Friedrich Merz’s “antinationalist policy” had been rejected and asked whether the rest of Germany would also wake up.

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A historic moment.

Moscow’s explanation for the AfD’s success rests partly on its view that eastern Germans retain a stronger antifascist spirit, sense of justice and sympathy for Russia than western Germans. Political scientist Alexander Kamkin told the Kremlin-linked Komsomolskaya Pravda that the AfD is also the party of Germany’s three million ethnic Germans from Russia. “That alone makes it an enemy of the state in the eyes of Berlin’s mainstream media,” he said.

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The AfD will rebuild Germany and Europe.

From Moscow’s perspective, the result shows that politicians can deny claims about drone and explosive attacks on German airports or power facilities while winning state elections with pro-Russian narratives. The article presents this as an opportunity to destabilize the Merz government and perhaps weaken Western European support for Ukraine. Russian television host Yevgeny Popov placed the vote in a broader historical frame, saying the Soviet Union’s departure from East Germany under Mikhail Gorbachev had been a mistake worse than a crime. Meanwhile, a sarcastic reader on the state-aligned website gazeta.ru contrasted Germany’s political openness with Russia’s treatment of liberal politicians, asking why the AfD had not been barred from elections or imprisoned.

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Part of Germany seems to be waking up.