German AfD politicians traveled to Russia as Kremlin-invited election observers for Putin's 2024 presidential vote, endorsing a widely criticized and non-OSCE-monitored election.

For the 2024 Russian presidential election, no OSCE observers were invited, yet the Kremlin selected its own. Among them were several German AfD politicians, including Bavarian state parliament members Andreas Jurca and Elena Roon. Despite internal AfD opposition and travel warnings from the party’s federal board, these politicians traveled to Russia and publicly praised the election process. They appeared on the Kremlin-friendly RT DE channel and described the voting locations as well-organized with transparent ballot boxes, dismissing Western expert assessments of the election as staged and lacking democratic legitimacy. Political scientists criticized the AfD delegates as being used by the Russian leadership to lend western legitimacy to a sham election. The federal AfD leadership distanced itself, recommending the trip not be undertaken, while some party figures contradicted each other on whether to congratulate Putin. The episode highlights the AfD’s ambiguous and potentially Kremlin-influenced posture amid discussions of classifying the party as right-wing extremist with ties to Russia.