German public prosecutors have launched two preliminary investigations into the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD)'s top European parliamentary candidate after media reports suggested that he had received payments from foreign powers.

The public prosecutor said the probe has been launched “as a result of current public reporting,” referring to reports by Spiegel magazine and public broadcaster ZDF last week that Krah had been questioned by the FBI in December 2023 over possible payments from sources close to the Kremlin.

During the interrogation, the US investigators had reportedly confronted Krah with chat messages in which the sanctioned pro-Russian former Ukrainian politician and activist Oleg Voloshyn assured him that the problem with “compensation” for Krah’s “technical expenses” had been solved and that, from May, “it would be as it was before February.”

The words used suggested that such payment arrangements had been long established, suggestions thqat Krah rejected.