On September 19, a well-known German daily, “Süddeutsche Zeitung”, published an article entitled “Azerbaijan in connection with CDU party member”.
The article specifically mentions that member of the Christian Democratic Party, Bundestag MP Karin Strenz received money from a company, which obviously has conducted some payable lobbying activities for the Azerbaijani authorities.
This company belongs to a former deputy from the Christian Socialist Party, political figure Eduard Lintner, that has been acting as a lobbyist for Azerbaijan, since 2009 through “The German-Azerbaijani Relations Promotion Company” founded by him.
Karin Strenz has been a member of the GDR Bundestag since 2009. She has been considered as an obvious lobbyist and supporter of Azerbaijan for long so far. She is with President Ilham Aliyev in the home page photo of her web site.
The German Bundestag elections will take place in a few days, and Karin Strenz hopes to become a deputy for the third time.
In her parliamentary website, Karin Strenz mentioned that from a firm called “Line M-Trade”, both in 2014 and in 2015, in January, she received 7500 and 15000 euros, respectively, for carrying out some additional work. According to the official register of companies registered in the GDR, the above-mentioned firm also belongs to Eduard Lintner.
According to the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” daily, Lintner has received over 800,000 euros from three suspicious companies over two years, which were used by the ruling Aliyev family.
In 2014, Karin Strenz with an employee from “The German-Azerbaijani Relations Promotion Company” founded her own company, “Extnet” LLC, acting as executive director and shareholder, but there is no information available on her official website of Bundestag. A few months after the foundation, Strenz handed the company’s management and her share to her husband, Kurt Strenz. Everything is clear.