Hidden meeting between a German MP and Russian officials. Concerns related to national safety in Bundestag
Ralf Stegner is criticized in Bundestag Photo: Teutopress GmbH / Imago Stock & People / Profimedia
German parliamentarians demand explanations from a social-democratic colleague, a member of the parliamentary commission that supervises the activity of intelligence services after having publicly unannounced discussions with close friends of the President of Russia, informs Reuters.
Ralf Stegner, a member of the Bundestag parliamentary control commission, was among the politicians in the SPD, as well as among the Conservatives of Chancellor Friedrich Merz who participated in the meeting in April, in Baku.
Among those with whom German politicians met on April 13 in the capital of Azerbaijan were the former Russian prime minister Viktor Subkov, the president of the Gazprom Supervisory Board, and Valeri Fadeev, the head of the Human Rights Council in Russia.
On both sides, the participants were members in the Petersburg dialogue, a forum founded in 2001 by Russian President Vladimir Putin and the then Chancellor Gerhard Schroder. The forum was officially abolished in 2021 after the EUSUS repression against some civil society organizations participating in this forum.
Four of the German participants-flag, Ronald Dipalla, former cabinet director of Chancellor Angela Merkel and two former regional ministers-confirmed in a statement that they were at a “private” event in Baku.
“To discuss even in difficult times, with increasing tensions, it is a fundamental principle of a good foreign policy,” the four wrote, adding that the “confidential” meeting was not a secret and that none of them had a public mandate to be there and were not paid for their presence.
The meeting, about which the public television station ARD and the Die Zeit newspaper reported, took place at a time when Russia's ties are frozen due to Ukraine's invasion. The context of the meeting raises question marks to the apparent availability of politicians to try a proximity even as Moscow was war against an ally of Germany.
In the case of Stegner, critics have expressed concerns about national safety. The members of the parliamentary control commission have privileged access to information related to the activity of German intelligence services, these being strongly involved in obtaining information on Russia and war.
“It is an annoying event that must be clarified immediately,” said the chairman of the Commission, representative of the green, for Der Spiegel Konstantin von Notz.
Roderich Kiesewetter, a conservative member of the Commission, said that Stegner should give explanations, and Liberal MEP Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann said that Stegner should no longer receive a new mandate in the Commission. “People in such an important function must be above any suspicion. It is not his case,” she said, referring to Ralf Stegner.
