A politician from the right-wing German party AfD (Alternative for Germany) Piotr Bystron probably used a business trip to Lithuania to visit Belarus at the end of last year.

This is reported by the RND publication, citing a study by the non-profit research center Correctiv and the Lithuanian broadcaster LRT.. According to them, he hid this part of the trip in the travel report provided to the leadership of the Bundestag..

According to a source in the Lithuanian border authorities, the AfD deputy entered Belarus on November 16 in the border town of Medininkai from Lithuania and returned on November 19. On the way back, at the border checkpoint, the border guards checked and recorded the name of the driver who accompanied Bystron.

The Border Guard Service refused to officially confirm this information, emphasizing that they provide border crossing data only to state authorities in exceptional situations..

Purpose of AfD MP's visit to Belarus remains unclear. Bystron himself did not respond to a written request from journalists..

Bystron is the AfD representative on the foreign affairs committee of the Bundestag.

The head of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Bundestag, Michael Roth (SPD), called the information about the trip "

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November 9, 2022. Mr. Bystron applied to the President of the Bundestag for approval of an individual business trip to Vilnius/Lithuania from 14 to 16 November 2022. There is no mention of a trip to Belarus in the mission statement, nor in the “travel description” that he subsequently provided,” explains Roth, head of the foreign affairs committee..

Belarus supports Russia's aggressive war against Ukraine and therefore also falls under EU sanctions.

Deputy Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, CSU Bundestag deputy Thomas Erndl was the one who approved the application for a trip to Lithuania by AfD politician Bistron in November.

“If I had known then that Bystron was also planning to travel to Belarus, I would not have supported the request for a trip,” Erndl told Correctiv and LRT and added that he feels deceived by Bystron and will definitely discuss the politician’s actions in parliamentary groups, since the trips.

In 2018, representatives of the Alternative for Germany party visited the Crimea annexed by Russia, and in 2022 they planned a trip to the Donbass occupied by Russian troops.