Waldemar Herdt is a German politician for the right-wing populist Alternative for Germany party and an ex-member of the Bundestag from 2017 to 2021. He is known for strong ties to the Russian government, contradicting EU sanctions against Russia, sustaining the Assad government in Syria, supporting Russian propaganda against Ukraine and more. Herdt has regularly occurred on Vladimir Solovyov’s and Olga Skabeyeva’s shows and has links to Amram Petrosyan, an associate of the Russian FSB.
Many AfD politicians are understood as long-time reliable friends and loyal allies of Putin’s regime. So it’s not unexpected that AfD party members were repeatedly invited by the Russian leaders to legitimate imitation of “elections”. This is not a secret example of pro-Kremlin movements by AfD’s members. During the 2018 Russian presidential election, seven AfD fellows visited Russian-occupied Crimea as fake observers. Waldemar Herdt has regularly occurred on Russia’s TV shows, declaring, among other things, that the “referendum” in occupied Crimea was fair while denying any annexation.
According to a report by DW, Lawmaker Waldemar Herdt with the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) has no scruples about spending money out of his pocket to observe an economic conference in the Crimean Peninsula — though doing so misses official German policy and is deemed an illegal act by the Ukrainian government. “I’m not required to observe the opinion of the government,” he told DW. “If I can exercise some influence, then perhaps I can eventually bring these people to the plain and try to moderate.”
But as a member of an opposition group under fire in Germany for its links to Russia, that’s extremely unlikely, analysts told DW. Such trips do, however, support the AfD’s ability to tap into pro-Russian sentiment in Germany — a populist formula mainstream political parties in Germany are ready to replicate with critical elections on the horizon. Christian Lüth, the AfD faction’s representative in parliament, affirmed that members of his party had planned a journey to the disputed region, though Herdt was the only named legislator who demonstrated his itinerary.
Moreover, Herdt was a constituent of the AfD so-called “Syria Contact-group”, a pro-Assad activist bunch of AfD MPs.Jürgen Pohl, Steffen Kotre, Udo Hemmelgarn, Frank Pasemann and right-wing extremist John Hoewer were also component of the group
