A Chechen-born member of Germany's pro-Russian AfD party has joined the Russian army, posting photos of himself in a Russian uniform and appearing in an occupied Ukrainian city, according to Militarnyi. The politician's party had already begun expelling him after a trip to Chechnya earlier this year. His path from German party politics to Russia's war ran through Kadyrov's inner circle.
From party lists to Russian uniform
Murad Dadaev, also known as Noah Krieger, a member of the German right-populist party Alternative for Germany (AfD), announced his enlistment on his Instagram page, where he published photos in Russian military uniform, Militarnyi reported.
He also appeared in occupied Bakhmut in Donetsk Oblast and took part in motorcycle assault training with Russian troops.
Bakhmut, once a city of over 70,000 people, was reduced to ruins in one of the war's longest and bloodiest battles before Russia occupied it in 2023. Now it's about 9 km from its outskirts to the frontline. Dadaev's photos show him armed, in body armor, among the city's gutted high-rises.
An expulsion already underway
The AfD's Lower Saxony branch, where Dadaev was registered, launched the procedure to expel him earlier this year without publicly explaining the decision. The move followed Dadaev's trip to Chechnya, where he visited Grozny and his native village of Samashki, attended a session of Chechnya's parliament with Russian strongman Ramzan Kadyrov, and met Zamid Chalaev, commander of the Kadyrov special police regiment.
German AfD party will expel from its ranks a Chechen who advocates for Germany’s “unity” with Russia
During the same trip, Dadaev presented Chechnya's deputy prime minister Akhmed Dudaev with a Third Reich-era Luftwaffe dagger bearing a swastika. Radio Svoboda journalists found that in Germany the politician openly backed the Kremlin's policies and Vladimir Putin, pushed for tougher migration rules, and used expressions typical of Nazis during World War II.
A villa in Hanover and Kadyrov's men
In Hanover, the Chechnya-born politician founded several companies and rented a historic 850 m² villa for events, which he later continued to occupy illegally. He hosted his AfD party colleagues there.
Germany spent years weaning itself off Russian energy. AfD’s Weidel wants to turn back after more than decade of Russia killing Ukrainians
At the same venue, Dadaev received his compatriot Said-Magomed Ibragimov, former head of the Team Wolf Hamburg fight club. Human rights advocates linked that organization to the pro-Kadyrov biker group Guerilla Vaynakh Nation, suspected of violent crimes. Ibragimov was repeatedly seen in the company of Chechnya's government head Magomed Daudov and his deputy Abuzaid Vismuradov. Dadaev's family has direct ties to the Kadyrov regime's crimes on European Union territory, Militarnyi reported.
