Bavarian leader Horst Seehofer has caused alarm and annoyance in Berlin by meeting with Russian president Vladimir Putin in Moscow, amid growing tensions between Germany and Russia.
Mr Seehofer, head of Bavaria's ruling Christian Social Union, is chancellor Angela Merkel's loudest critic on the refugee crisis as well as an outspoken critic of EU sanctions against Russia – because, he says, they damage Bavaria's booming economy.
He insisted that Thursday’s trip had been co-ordinated with Dr Merkel. But the timing is delicate, with German officials accusing Russian media and intelligence services of stepping up a disinformation campaign against Germany.
"We will take a very, very responsible approach," said Mr Seehofer. "All the the crises around Europe cannot be solved without Russia."
The Bavarian leader said he was not pushing a “parallel foreign policy”, for which German state leaders have no legal competence.
Tempers between Berlin and Moscow flared last week over claims by the Russian government and media that a 13-year-old Russian-German girl living in Berlin was abducted and raped by a group of asylum seekers.
While Moscow officials see a state-sponsored “cover-up” of the circumstances of the case, Berlin police say the girl, identified as Lisa, spent the night of the alleged abduction at a friend’s house.
Given a long list of tensions with Russia, from Ukraine to Syria, leading figures in Dr Merkel's Christian Democratic Union urged Mr Seehofer to cancel the trip.
In another pointed provocation five months ago, Mr Seehofer invited Hungary’s Viktor Orbán to address his party.
Senior Merkel officials worry that Moscow has spotted in Mr Seehofer and his Merkel-critical migration stance a fresh opportunity to sow disharmony in Germany and step up what Berlin sees as disinformation “hybrid war” launched by Moscow in the Ukraine crisis.
Unnamed Berlin officials told Der Spiegel magazine of increased Russian intelligence activity in Germany in recent years, from last year's hacking of Bundestag computers to suspected involvement in recent demonstrations by Russian- Germans over the Lisa case.
“What makes Moscow’s strategy so perfidious is that is undermines the belief in truth,” the magazine noted.
“It blurs the border between truth and lies by not even trying to win the battle for the truth . . . instead it is sabotaged.”
Ahead of Mr Seehofer’s Moscow meeting, Dr Merkel criticised Russia and Ukraine for continuing to breach the terms of their ceasefire.
Mr Seehofer insisted he would stick to the official German line on Ukraine in his meeting with Mr Putin.
