Too close to Russia? The AfD parliamentary group leadership is discussing the Matthias Moosdorf case – and, according to information from t-online, is drawing the first conclusions.
A Bundestag mandate and at the same time a paid job in Moscow at a state-funded university? That may also be too much for the Russia-friendly AfD: The top of the AfD parliamentary group in the Bundestag is discussing the case of their foreign policy spokesman Matthias Moosdorf, is publicly skeptical and has drawn the first conclusions behind the scenes. AfD MP Moosdorf has also been an honorary professor in Moscow since September.
According to information from t-online, the AfD parliamentary group board decided on Monday that Moosdorf would not be allowed to take part in two trips abroad as planned – one was to go to Japan, the other to Doha, capital of Qatar. The external working group, which Moosdorf heads, is also said to be encouraging him to give up his honorary professorship in Moscow. Moosdorf was absent from the AfD parliamentary group meeting on Tuesday due to illness.
Officially, the board is keeping a low profile
Officially, however, the party leadership is keeping a low profile. We are waiting for a statement from Moosdorf, said Alice Weidel, head of the federal party and parliamentary group, in a press statement on Tuesday. Until then, they do not want to comment on the case.
Bernd Baumann, First Parliamentary Managing Director and member of the parliamentary group executive committee, had already announced a little more about the case that morning: “We are in discussions with Mr. Moosdorf,” he said at a press conference when asked by t-online. The case has a “political component”.
The party’s decision is that Russia’s war against Ukraine will be viewed as a war of aggression and condemned. A professorship in Russia should therefore be assessed differently than “a professorship somewhere abroad,” said Baumann. “We see a problem there and the discussions are heading in that direction.” What solutions are possible? Baumann did not comment on this.
According to information from t-online, MPs in the parliamentary group are not only bothered by Moosdorf’s new job, but in particular that he is supposed to receive a salary from Moscow for it. In the past few days, the board is said to have conducted research into exactly how the Gnessin University of Music, Moosdorf’s future workplace, relates to the Kremlin.
The 59-year-old Moosdorf has recently become the parliamentary group’s foreign policy spokesman and has also been an honorary professor in Moscow since September, as t-online reported last week. In addition to his diet in the Bundestag of around 11,000 euros per month, Moosdorf would also receive payment from the Moscow Gnessin University of Music, which is financed by the Russian Ministry of Culture. “The structure of the further contract is still open, but is based on fees that are completely customary internationally,” Moosdorf told t-online last week when asked.
Moosdorf has been sitting in the Bundestag for the AfD since 2021. In his Saxon constituency of Zwickau, he won the direct mandate with 25.6 percent. Before his time as a member of parliament, he was a successful cellist and professional musician. He justifies his new part-time job by saying that he wants to send a “sign of understanding” especially to young people. “Music knows no ideological boundaries.”
The Gnessin Russian Academy of Music is an internationally renowned music college in Russia. In 2022, just days after Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, she made headlines for war propaganda. Moosdorf claims that he cannot recognize any political orientation of the Gnessin University of Music. “I’m not interested in her either.” His work applies “exclusively to music as a global language of reconciliation and understanding.”
In the AfD, the connections to Russia are strong: officials repeatedly go on observer trips to legitimize the Kremlin’s undemocratic elections – most recently three Bavarian members of the state parliament did this in March, when Vladimir Putin was re-elected as president. Like numerous other AfD elected officials, they appeared on Russian propaganda TV channels. In terms of content, the AfD behaves as a “peace party”: its officials are calling for an end to the sanctions against Moscow, ceding territory from Ukraine to Russia and emphasizing the West’s complicity in the war in Ukraine.