Bundestag aide cooperated with FSB, aimed at disrupting aid to Ukraine — investigation by Der Spiegel and The Insider
Berlin, Germany (Svidomi) — According to the German newspaper Der Spiegel and the Russian-language newspaper The Insider, an aide to Eugen Schmidt's right-wing populist Alternative for Germany party, Vladimir Sergienko, could have been involved with Russian intelligence services. He could have collaborated with an officer of the Russian Federal Security Service.
Vladimir Sergienko was born in Ukraine, has lived in Germany for many years and obtained German citizenship. He works as a political technologist and cooperates with the German far-right party Alternative for Germany, which has a 20% rating and opposes aid to Ukraine.
The journalists found out that Vladimir Sergienko was not just a Russian propagandist but also in close contact with a Russian Federal Security Service officer.
In August 2023, it became known that Sergienko discussed the disruption of German military aid to Ukraine with his curator in Moscow. Journalists believe that this contact person was FSB Colonel Ilya Vechtomov.
As an assistant to AfD member of the Bundestag Schmidt, Sergienko helped write speeches for the lawmaker and other AfD members.
Sergienko was behind the lawsuit filed by a group of AfD members with the German Federal Constitutional Court, demanding that German arms supplies to Ukraine without Bundestag approval be declared illegal.
Sergienko (who had only Ukrainian citizenship until 2022) denied in a commentary to Spiegel that he was an agent of Kremlin influence. He called the speculation about his ties to Russia "groundless and unrelated to reality." However, according to journalists, Sergienko has visited Russia eighteen times since the start of the war. He even flew to Moscow on February 23, 2022, the day before Russia started its full-scale invasion. Then, on June 6, 2023, Russian agent Ilya Vechtomov organised a one-day trip to Sochi for Sergienko and senior AfD operative Bernhard Ulrich Ome. So far, this trip has not been publicly disclosed.
The Berlin Public Prosecutor's Office expressed interest in Sergienko after they discovered his Russian passport. According to Spiegel, they want to deprive him of his German citizenship because he was hiding this passport.
The AfD MP's aide was also denied access to the parliamentary premises.
In January 2023, Ukraine imposed sanctions on 198 Russian citizens, including Vladimir Sergienko.
