Minister President of Saxony Michael Kretschmer has said he invited Vladimir Putin to visit the eastern German federal state “soon,” reiterating his call for sanctions against Russia to be lifted.

Kretschmer made the announcement in front of 400 people at a conference of his party, the CDU (Christian Democratic Union), in Chemnitz over the weekend.

I hope he comes to visit us soon.

The minister president hinted that Putin could make the trip before the Saxon state election on September 1, Bild reported. He also repeated his call for German sanctions against Russia to be lifted, which he had previously made in early June, provoking a major debate in the country.

Shortly after meeting with the Russian president at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, Kretschmer called Russia “a strategically important partner” for Germany, and urged economic restrictions against the country to be removed “for a better relationship.”

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The CDU is currently neck-and-neck with the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in the polls in Saxony, a federal state located on the Polish border. In his speech, which was met with standing applause from the audience, Kretschmer spoke a lot about the need to bring the “non-voters,” those who were disappointed in politics, to the polls to give their voices to his party. Inviting Putin seems to be a part of this strategy.

The move faced criticism from the CDU’s political opponents, with Green Party candidate Katja Meier decrying it as “populist.”

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