Putin awards German businessman Alexander von Bismarck the Pushkin Order at the Kremlin

Award at the Kremlin

Russian President Vladimir Putin personally presented the Order of Pushkin to Alexander von Bismarck, a German businessman and publicist, at the Kremlin in Moscow on Wednesday, 4 November. The ceremony included several awards and was held on Russia's Day of National Unity, according to the state news agency TASS, whose report was relayed by DPA and N-tv. The Order of Pushkin recognizes outstanding cultural achievements or services in spreading Russian culture abroad. Von Bismarck is a distant relative of Otto von Bismarck, the first chancellor of the German Empire.

Speech and recording

In his thank-you remarks, von Bismarck cited a saying attributed to his distant relative Otto von Bismarck: if Germany and Russia are friends, Europe will also fare well. He said he works toward the same goal himself. A recording of the speech was posted on Telegram by the news agency RIA Novosti. Both German outlets reporting the ceremony relied on material from TASS and RIA Novosti.

Links to the AfD and BSW

Von Bismarck has repeatedly been seen in the company of politicians from the AfD, which is partly classified as far right, and from the populist left BSW. He founded the German-Russian project Bismarck-Dialog, which promotes exchange between the two countries. Both parties favor normalizing relations with Russia and oppose continued military and financial support for Ukraine. In June he accompanied two BSW members of the European Parliament during talks in Moscow. In 2024 he appeared in a photo from a reception at the Russian embassy in Berlin marking Russia's national day, standing next to AfD parliamentary group deputy chair Stefan Keuter.

Magdeburg event and Bundestag invitation

The AfD parliamentary group in the Bundestag invited him this summer to a congress under the motto 'Freedom of expression, media, human rights'. In October he was a guest at the opening of a TV studio in Magdeburg for the magazine Compact, which the Office for the Protection of the Constitution classifies as far right. Politicians from the AfD and BSW in the newly elected Saxony-Anhalt state parliament were invited to that event. According to a transcript published by Compact, he said his name is associated with ties to Russia, that he travels there often and speaks with artists, ordinary people and officials, and that he would help through official contacts if he could.