A member of the Hamburg city assembly from Germany’s Alternative for Deutschland (AfD) party, Robert Risch, attended a far-right forum in Russia this month that drew extreme right-wing politicians from several countries, an examination of images from the conference shows. A former AfD member who was ousted from the Hamburg assembly also attended the conference in St. Petersburg, whose organizers included Konstantin Malofeyev, a Kremlin-connected tycoon who champions Russian imperialism and is under Western sanctions for involvement in Moscow’s war of aggression against Ukraine. Billed as the founding conference of an “international league of anti-globalists’ called Paladins, the September 12 forum in St. Petersburg’s ornate, Imperial-era Mariinsky Palace was attended by far-right politicians from nations including France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Spain, and South Africa. Faces of some of the attendees were blurred in a number of published photos from the forum, including one that shows a man seated at a conference table behind a placard that indicates he is from Germany. But photos of the same attendees were published elsewhere without blurring. A member of the Hamburg city assembly from Germany’s Alternative for Deutschland (AfD) party, Robert Risch, attended a far-right forum in Russia this month that drew extreme right-wing politicians from several countries, an examination of images from the conference shows. A former AfD member who was ousted from the Hamburg assembly also attended the conference in St. Petersburg, whose organizers included Konstantin Malofeyev, a Kremlin-connected tycoon who champions Russian imperialism and is under Western sanctions for involvement in Moscow’s war of aggression against Ukraine. Billed as the founding conference of an “international league of anti-globalists’ called Paladins, the September 12 forum in St. Petersburg’s ornate, Imperial-era Mariinsky Palace was attended by far-right politicians from nations including France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Spain, and South Africa. Faces of some of the attendees were blurred in a number of published photos from the forum, including one that shows a man seated at a conference table behind a placard that indicates he is from Germany. But photos of the same attendees were published elsewhere without blurring.
via rferl: German City Council Member From AfD Attended Far-Right Forum In Russia