Sahra Wagenknecht is in need of an explanation. Loud Research by t-online is said to be the BSW politician’s Facebook account Among other things, it may have been managed by an account that the Facebook company locates in Russia. After t-online asked Wagenknecht’s team on Tuesday why, the connection to Russia is said to have disappeared from the account two days later.
The information about the account was visible because Facebook is required to provide transparency information as a result of previous disinformation campaigns from abroad. Since then, users have been able to see details on every Facebook page about the accounts that can post content on the page and have access rights. However, it is not names that appear, but rather the number of accounts that manage the site and where these accounts are based.
According to t-online, a total of 13 people had access to Sahra Wagenknecht’s Facebook account by Wednesday. One of them with its “main location” in Russia.
However, it is not publicly possible to determine exactly how Facebook determines the main location of account managers. The company has admitted that Facebook can collect information about the whereabouts of its users, even if they have deactivated the corresponding functions.
Since Thursday, according to t-online, three administrators have disappeared from the information on Wagenknecht’s Facebook page and one less account was visible on her husband Oskar Lafontaine’s page – the main location, Russia, no longer appears on either page. According to t-online, when asked on Tuesday, Wagenknecht’s office stated that it does not employ any employees based in Russia or people with a Russian passport. The office also replied: “Where do you actually get such ‘information’ from? What a robber’s gun!”
After t-online pointed out that the information came from Facebook, the office explained: “A long-time employee of Ms. Wagenknecht, who is a German citizen, has Russian family members.” The woman also visits the family “from time to time”. Facebook’s statement “main location” is misleading; it does not provide any information about an administrator’s place of residence or permanent location. A request from t-online about the removal of the administrators has not yet been responded to.
Facebook and X are blocked for users in Russia. Transparency information from
t-online reported last year that Wagenknecht’s long-time office manager Ruth Firmenich and her BSW colleague Michael vonschulenberg were received in Moscow in May 2025 by a Russian bribery network around the Putin-loyal oligarch Viktor Medvedchuk, which also runs the “Voice of Europe” medium. Money is said to have flowed to European politicians from this circle. Investigations are underway against AfD politician Petr Bystronbecause he is said to have accepted money from this circle, which Bystron denies. The European MP Firmenich told t-online that she had met the interviewees in Moscow for the first time and had no further contact with them after their stay.