AFD co-leader Alice Weidel has officially spoken out against the trip and said that she and many others in the party "Don't even see any sense/purpose in the trip".

She has said that she will not officially ban the members from traveling there as it was already allowed by lower branches and it wouldn't be right for them to overrule them now

HOWEVER, she has said that while she will not stop anyone from visiting Sochi the ones doing so will have to be ready to accept any consequences that may come from it

Those consequences go up to a complete expulsion from the party.

One of the two has already declared that he has reconsidered and won't go after all, while another remains adamant about going

She has been catching flack online from the more heavily pro-russian wing of the party for this

With many highlighting her past with Goldman Sachs and the fact she's one of the more moderate voices inside the party, claiming she's just a tool from the elite to keep the AFD down and harmless

For those who don't know, the AFD was not always this right wing. The party originally started out as a primarily economically focused liberal but eurosceptic party.

Over time the party was infiltrated by further and further right wing people who began pushing out the original core of the party.

Many of the original founding members of the party have by now left and even condemned what it has become.

Some of the comments made by founding members who have by now left:

"Today I wouldn't found her again" - Markus Keller

"It failed, the AFD, the baby we founded back then unfortunately failed" - Norbert Stenzel

However some of the members to this day remain more devoted to the original ideas than others, one of them being Alice Weidel.

Many of the more Far-Right members of the party, who are more closely aligned with Russia, see her as a hindrance and not what they want the party to be and have been plotting for her downfall for a while.

Those same people now accuse her of "selling out" and also "tyranny" for dictating where other members can travel or not.

You can see this split in the party in the leadership

The AFD has two leaders Tino Chrupalla and Alice Weidel

Weidel who as previously mentioned is more liberal "represents" the "moderate" wing of the AFD.

While Chrupalla is closer with and "represents" the more "radical" wing of the AFD.

And this is also visible in their approach to Russia, with Weidel being far less of a fan of Russia and Putin, although not hostile whatsoever. Meanwhile Chrupalla will often blab 1-1 Russian State TV propaganda.

🇷🇺Russian stormtroopers fighting against Ukraine talk about their nationality and laugh at the irony.

I am a Nivkh. Chukchi. Yakut. Nanay. Kazakh. Tajik. Yukaghir. Buryat. That's how we fight for Russia — not a single Russian.

Every one of these peoples was murdered, repressed, and genocided during Russia’s colonization.

And now, they are being used to carry out another colonization.

Art of the deal!

Among all the most common cause of deaths in the middle east from diabetes, cardiac arrest, Israeli airforce, nigga was killed by a honey badger.

First thing i see when i open twitter.

🇦🇺 👀 🇨🇳 Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) Director-General Mike Burgess has warned Australian companies of the rising threat coming from hackers. While not mentioning China directly he hinted heavily at their involvement.

👾 Mike Burgess has revealed Chinese hacking groups Salt Typhoon and Volt Typhoon have targeted telecommunications networks in Australia, and are probing Australian infrastructure daily.

🗣️ I have previously said we're getting closer to the threshold for high impact sabotage - Well, I regret to inform you — we're there now

🗣️ ASIO is aware of one nation state, no prizes for guessing which one, conducting multiple attempts to scan and penetrate critical infrastructure in Australia and other Five Eyes countries, targeting water, transport, telecommunications, and energy networks.

- ASIO Director General, Mike Burgess

🇵🇰⚡️ 🇮🇳 Pakistan blames India for terrorist attack in Islamabad. Mobilisation on the Eastern border. Indian media calls for Operation Sinpoop 23.0