DICK UND DOOF IN PUTINLAND
September 20, 2022 -Durt Fibo

Today some of the Ukrainian media was startled to learn that a party of German politicians was due to arrive in the Donbass region for their own “undistorted picture of the situation.” I am writing to clarify that this is not entirely true, or very realistic at all.

The German holidaymakers were, unsurprisingly, all aligned with the right-wing AfD (Alternative für Deutschland), which, in it’s drive to undermine the European Union, is yet another European group throwing all its support behind Russia, and Vladimir Putin in particular. Since some of the AfD tourists are sitting members of state parliaments, this grand adventure fell on its face before getting anywhere. As the party had planned to travel from Germany to Russia and then to the Donbass, advance word first hit Russia and the two breakaway territories, which meant that Ukraine knew of it instantly and publicly cautioned that entering Ukrainian turf that way was illegal.

That Ukrainian warning zipped right back to Germany, where senior heads of the AfD were surprised to hear about the trip. Although some of the explorers were already on their way, co-party chiefs Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla stated this afternoon that they had not known of the stunt, that it was to be classified as a “private trip” that „had not been agreed with the party,“ that “We do not support this trip,” and “The travel activity does not represent the position of the AfD either.” MP Joana Cotar said: “The trip to the Russian-occupied part of Ukraine is unacceptable and politically wrong.” Worse still, Oliver Kirchner, an Afd parliamentary group head, admitted to the German Press Agency that costs for booking the flights and the expedition as a whole had been paid with Afd party funds. Now the final word thundered down from the top of AfD Valhalla: Cancelled! “Nobody goes there!”

AfD subsequently explained that the party has requested that Dr. Christian Blex [one of the runaway politicians in the Nordrhein-Westfalen parliament] “cancel the trip immediately and return, He is forbidden from appearing as a representative of the AfD parliamentary group in North Rhine-Westphalia during his travel activities. The parliamentary group will decide on any disciplinary consequences after a status check.” This is ominous, since AfD members have been caught overstepping their remits before, with a notable jaunt to Crimea in 2018 –which the party then had to admit was financed by the Russian Duma itself.

The Laurel and Hardy trip would’ve come at a time when Putin is losing ground in Luhansk, armies in Kharkiv, and has his Gauleitern scrambling to force referendums on joining the Great Russian Disaster. Even if Ukraine is slowed by daily warfare, it is questionable whether Putin’s chieftains or their populations will get close enough to a convincing unification. Remember, by mid August, Serhiy Haidai, head of the Luhansk regional military administration, announced that Luhansk men adamantly refused to go five feet across their border to help their fellow pro-Russian fighters in Donetsk. Their rationale was that their work was done and life was fine because the regional leadership had declared victory…so the “fraternal people” of Donetsk were of no interest to them.