Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine four years ago, the Kremlin has exploited national minorities to achieve its war aims. The Russian-German population, like many others, has been used as an instrument of Moscow’s expansionist policy – and not only on the battlefield. The Russian-German diaspora is also used as a tool of hybrid influence to promote Kremlin propaganda narratives.
What is striking is that even in 2022-2023, functionaries within the German diaspora were spreading these Kremlin narratives while receiving funding from Germany.
Russia’s German minority – never fully re-established after Joseph Stalin’s 1941-42 mass deportations – continues to pay a heavy price. According to estimates by a German activist, by spring 2025 the number of Russian Germans killed since the beginning of the full-scale war in Ukraine was at least 1,017. Compared to the overall number of war casualties, this figure may appear small. Yet the 2020-2021 Russian census recorded just over 195,000 Germans remaining in Russia. In relative terms, the minority’s ongoing war losses are catastrophic.
These facts are rarely acknowledged by those who for decades controlled the diaspora’s public life inside Russia while promoting Kremlin narratives. Soon after the full-scale invasion began, many of them relocated safely to Germany.
Heinrich and Olga Martens had led the International Union of German Culture since the early 1990s. Then, in the late 1990s, they launched the Moskauer Deutsche Zeitung (MDZ), a publication presenting itself as the voice of Russian Germans. From 2009, the couple also headed the Federal National-Cultural Autonomy of Russian Germans (FNKARN), and Heinrich Martens even served as a trusted representative of Vladimir Putin during one of Russia’s presidential elections
His loyalty to the Kremlin became evident after Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea, when he sent a “delegation” from FNKARN to visit the peninsula and spoke about restoring “historical justice” for deported Germans. Yet the discussion concerned not the restoration of the short-lived Volga German Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic but the creation of “compact settlements” in Crimea.
Ukraine’s Myrotvorets Center, established in 2014 to document Russian war crimes, described this as an attempt to legitimize the Russian occupation of Crimea by involving Russian Germans.
The leadership’s public activities were not difficult to interpret. A frequent guest at their events was Igor Barinov, head of Russia’s Federal Agency for Ethnic Affairs and a former FSB officer.
By the end of 2022, already during the full-scale war, the couple left their positions in FNKARN and moved to Germany. In his farewell remarks, Heinrich Martens emphasized the “importance of cooperation with state authorities” and expressed his satisfaction that Russian Germans “speak in unison,” while Olga Martens welcomed diaspora representatives holding positions in government.
Their successors maintained the same line. In December 2023, they organized the International Catherine Forum, where participants discussed the “return of historically Russian lands” and the integration into Russia of occupied Ukrainian territories in Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia regions. The event was promoted in the pages of MDZ.
A review of MDZ articles since 2014 suggests that the newspaper consistently reproduces Kremlin narratives, often without disguise. This applies not only to sanctions and relations with the West but also to the war itself.
A German-language article, “In the Volunteer Network” (June 26, 2023), describes how “many Russians” support Russia’s “Special Military Operation” [the Kremlin’s name for its full-scale invasion of Ukraine] from far behind the frontlines. The piece includes elderly women weaving camouflage nets, the mothers of mobilized soldiers, and a contract Russian soldier fighting in Donbas receiving ceremonial aid. Participants record a video message wishing him to “return home with victory.”
The article contains no mention of Russia’s responsibility for the war, no Ukrainian perspective, and no voices of Russian anti-war activists – nor even of Russian Germans opposing mobilization.
At the time it was published, Olga Martens was already in Germany. As MDZ’s co-publisher, she gave interviews complaining about censorship in Russia while claiming the newspaper merely sought to “provide information for reflection.”
She has remained active in Germany’s public sphere. She continued working with Russian-speaking diaspora groups and in 2025 attempted to run for the Bundestag as a candidate for German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s ruling Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party – a paradox given Merz’s strong support for Ukraine and criticism of Russia.
Yet MDZ itself sharply criticizes Merz. A July 4, 2025 article argues that he is driven by resentment toward former German Chancellor Angela Merkel and claims his support for Ukraine is an attempt to prove something to her, while describing Ukraine as having “effectively lost” the war. The piece relies on statements by German political scientist Ulrike Guérot, known for her appearances in Russia and widely quoted by Russian propaganda.
The Martens family appears to have retained control over the MDZ newspaper. The German-language website lists its publisher as MaWI Group, which is registered at the same address as the editorial office. The company is a Russian publishing firm, 95 percent owned by the Martens family.
According to an Oct. 13, 2023 response by the German federal government to a Bundestag inquiry, Olga Martens’s German organization, Sprach- und Partnerschaftsinitiative e.V., received two grants of approximately €198,000 ($233,000) in 2022 and 2023. The funding came from the federal budget through Germany’s Interior Ministry – at the very time that the MDZ newspaper’s pages contained messages wishing Russian soldiers to “return home with victory.”
Whether Germany still finances MDZ remains unclear. One thing, however, is evident: pro-Kremlin functionaries continue to provide informational support to Putin’s regime beyond Russia’s borders. Operating a media outlet hosted on a European domain, Heinrich and Olga Martens continue to disseminate Kremlin narratives – now from within Germany.
The views expressed in this opinion piece are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect those of Kyiv Post.