The far-right AfD\u2019s leading candidate for the European Parliament elections, Maximilian Krah, has been questioned by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) about possible payments from pro-Russian patrons, according to a German media report. The questioning took place in December 2023 in the US before Krah\u2019s return trip to Germany after a Young Republicans event in New York, Der Spiegel reported on Tuesday, citing information shared with German public broadcaster ZDF.<\/p>\n
When asked by dpa news agency, Krah said: \u201cI was questioned as a witness about my contacts in Ukraine, yes. I have provided information accordingly.\u201d According to research by Der Spiegel and ZDF, the US investigators were allegedly suspicious of a chat message in which a pro-Russian activist assured that a problem with the \u201ccompensation\u201d for Krah\u2019s \u201ctechnical expenses\u201d had been resolved. From May onwards, \u201cthings will be as they were before February.\u201d<\/p>\n
The wording suggested that Krah may have been paid covertly for some time, the report added. The authorities were now investigating this. Krah further said that he had never concealed his contacts with the pro-Russian activist and that they could be found on his Instagram account. \u201cThe accusations are absurd and fabricated,\u201d Krah added. Der Spiegel quoted Krah as saying that he had not received any money, \u201cno payments, monetary benefits or other compensation\u201d from the activist.<\/p>\n
The activist may have wanted to pay him back money for an opera ball ticket, he said. Or, he suggested, the chat message, which spoke of \u201ccompensation,\u201d must have been intended for a different recipient. Krah\u2019s name has also appeared in connection with the pro-Russian internet platform Voice of Europe (VoE). At the end of March, the Czech Republic placed VoE on its national sanctions list following an intelligence investigation.<\/p>\n
The website was said to be part of a Russian influence operation aimed at jeopardising the territorial integrity, sovereignty and freedom of Ukraine. Interviews with AfD politician Petr Bystron and Krah were published on the portal. The Czech newspaper Denik N had reported that Bystron may also have accepted money. The AfD parliamentarian has repeatedly denied this. According to Der Spiegel, Krah also denies having accepted money from VoE. The European Parliament elections are scheduled for June 6-9.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The far-right AfD\u2019s leading candidate for the European Parliament elections, Maximilian Krah, has been questioned by the US Federal Bureau\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":39965,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[186],"tags":[998,7618,13082,1573,923,928,792,13081,13084,265,13083,681,483],"class_list":["post-39961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","tag-europe","tag-european-parliament-elections","tag-far-right-afd-party","tag-fbi","tag-germany","tag-intelligence","tag-investigation","tag-maximilian-krah","tag-possible-payments-from-pro-russian-patrons","tag-russia-ukraine-war","tag-russian-connections","tag-sanctions","tag-ukraine"],"reading_time":"2 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39961"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39961\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}