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In anOCCRP investigation, Frohnmaier was listed as a recipient of financial benefits of Russia's International Agency for Current Policy.[5][6][7][8]
German journalistManuel Ochsenreiter [de] introduced Frohnmaier to a Russian government network in 2015, seeing potential in him. By 2016, Frohnmaier was referred to as "our candidate" by Kremlin-linked figures, and he was invited to a public Russian economic forum inoccupied Crimea. A 2019 investigation revealed that Russian state officials considered backing Frohnmaier in the 2017 Bundestag elections, with documents suggesting he would push pro-Russian, anti-American policies. The document notes that if he is elected, Russia would have "our own, completely controlled deputy in the Bundestag". One document, written by Ochsenreiter, proposed a campaign strategy centred on "German sovereignty" and "good relations with Russia." Both material and media support was recommended to help him get elected. Frohnmaier, when asked about the documents byTagesschau, denied knowing about the documents or who authored them, insisting they did not prove any complicity by him. There is no evidence that the proposed support was put into practice. Frohnmaier later hired Ochsenreiter as a parliamentary assistant in 2018.[9][10]
Following a false flag arson attack in Ukraine, in 2019 he dismissedManuel Ochsenreiter [de] as his employee after accusations that Ochsenreiter was the financier of the arsonists.[11][12]
Frohnmaier was born in 1991 in Craiova, Romania, where his Romanian biological parents gave him the nameCornel. According to his own information, he has never met his biological parents.[citation needed]
A German couple adopted him and his twin sister out of an orphanage. He then grew up with his adoptive parents inWeil der Stadt. From 2011, Frohnmaier studied law at the University of Tübingen and at the University of Hagen, but dropped out without a degree to focus on his political work. At the age of 27, Frohnmaier suffered a heart attack.[13]
Frohnmaier is married to Russian journalist Daria Frohnmaier, and has two children with her.[14][15]
^tagesschau.de, Anton Shekhovtsov für."Einflussnahme Russlands - Unterstützung für AfD-Politiker gefordert" [Support for AfD Politician Requested].Tagesschau (in German).Archived from the original on 2024-03-08. Retrieved2025-10-07. [One of the documents is an attachment to an email from April 3, 2017, from Petr Premjak, an assistant to the Russian Duma MP Viktor Schreider. In it, he suggested to officials of the Russian presidential administration that they support Frohnmaier. He stated that Frohnmaier had a great chance of being elected to the Bundestag in 2017. "We will have our own, absolutely controlled MP in the Bundestag," the document stated about him.]
