May 31, 2026
German representatives, AfD politicians to attend Putin’s economic forum
Members of Germany’s business community are set to officially attend the economic forum in the northern Russian city of St. Petersburg in early June after staying away for four years over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
The forum has been held under the auspices of the Russian president since 1997.
Its program says that German participants will include Stefan Dürr, a dairy producer operating in Russia with the EkoNiva Group, and Thomas Bruch, the longstanding managing director of Globus Holding.
Matthias Schepp, chairman of the German-Russian Chamber of Commerce, defended the attendance by German businesspeople to the dpa news agency.
“Not least with a view to the period following a ceasefire, we want, like other major Western countries, to maintain the economic bridge to Russia and protect the more than €100 billion ($116 billion) of German assets in Russia,” he said.
“The West should not leave Russia, its large market and its raw materials to Asia in the long term,” said Schepp.
US and French representatives returned to the event last year to take part in its so-called business dialogue component.
Western sanctions on thousands of Russian companies, organizations and individuals over the Ukraine invasion are still in place, with the trade volume between Germany and Russia falling beneath €10 billion ($11.66 billion) last year.
That compares with a volume of €59.7 billion in 2021 and €80 billion at its peak in 2012, making Germany Russia’s biggest trading partner in the European Union before the invasion launched in 2022.
Organizers said that several German representatives will also be attending an event about culture as way of building connections in times of crisis.
They include the conductor and pianist Justus Frantz, the founder of the popular Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, who in 2025 received an Order of Friendship from Russian President Vladmir Putin.
The chairman of the Saxony branch of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), Jörg Urban, the AfD’s chairman in the southern state of Baden-Württemberg, Markus Frohnmaier, the Berlin publisher Holger Friedrich and the filmmaker and journalist Hubert Seipel are also expected to attend.
