Germany's far-right AfD rejects sanctions against Russia

Germany's far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party has come out against sanctioning Russia over the Ukraine conflict and said NATO shared the blame for the crisis, reported dpa.

"In the past, sanctions have never had the intended results," AfD co-chairman Tino Chrupalla said on Tuesday.

The party therefore stands against "any and all kind of sanctions against Russia," he said.

The AfD viewed the advance of Russian troops into eastern Ukraine "critically," but Chrupalla also said: "We hope that there will be no further provocations from the other side, from the NATO side."

Demanding that diplomatic talks with Russia continue to try and find a solution, he said that "peace must be preserved in these areas."

Chrupalla also said that sanctions such as refusing to certify the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which would transport natural gas under the Baltic Sea directly from Russia to Germany, would "severly damage" the security of Germany's energy supply.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz's centre-left government put the project on hold on Tuesday as part of Germany's response to Moscow's recognition of Ukrainian separatist regions.

Party co-founder Alexander Gauland and Petr Bystron, the AfD's speaker on international affairs, stated that it would be a mistake to blame the current situation exclusively on Russia, and that the West must bear some responsibility.

"The situation we have now is a result of the eastward expansion of NATO, undertaken in spite of agreements with Moscow. In this, the West has violated Russia's security interests."

The statement supported any attempts to de-escalate the situation through negotiations.

The AfD holds around 10% of the seats in the German Bundestag.