Europe’s far right: Putin’s best friend?

Vladimir Putin capped a busy diplomatic period with appearances at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Bishkek and meetings with leaders such as China’s Xi Jinping and India’s Narendra Modi. The Kremlin also saw visits to Moscow by Jared Kushner and property investor Steve Witkoff, an episode the source presents as signalling continued US interest in negotiating over Ukraine. Yet it was a development inside the EU — the far-right Alternative for Germany’s victory in Saxony-Anhalt — that the article identifies as particularly welcome to Moscow. AfD’s regional success is framed as a potential stepping stone to greater influence at the national level. The party is polling six to seven points ahead of the governing Christian Democratic Union nationally, and could be the largest caucus in the Bundestag if trends hold into the 2029 federal election. Its platform, the piece notes, centres on tighter immigration controls, rolling back renewable-energy policies and restricting LGBTQ rights, and it retains strong support in former East Germany. The Kremlin’s interests could align with domestic coalitions that cross traditional left-right divides. The article highlights the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW), a splinter from Die Linke, which shares AfD positions on cutting military aid to Ukraine, pursuing negotiations with Russia and lifting EU sanctions. If parties with those views form governments in Berlin, the source suggests German foreign policy could veer toward the model set by Viktor Orbán in Hungary, with consequences for EU unity on security and enlargement. France is presented as the other major worry for EU cohesion. The piece warns that Marine Le Pen is a potential victor in the 2027 presidential race and that her National Rally supports some military aid for Ukraine but calls for talks and criticises EU efforts to weaken Russia. The article also stresses that not all populists remain static: it points to Italy’s Giorgia Meloni, who moved to strong support for Ukraine by 2022, and notes that Le Pen’s party has shifted toward the centre on several issues under her and Jordan Bardella. Finally, the source argues Russian influence campaigns mainly amplify existing social divisions rather than creating them, while also mentioning pressureary incidents such as a foiled drone attack at Leipzig airport and an anecdote that Putin, an amateur historian, might recall Catherine the Great’s family origins in the Saxony-Anhalt region.