‘It was the first election where I could vote — and didn’t know the result in advance.’ Meet Russian-born Berlin politician Elizaveta Kapinos.

Voting in elections for Berlin’s House of Representatives (the city parliament) and district councils ended on September 20. The vote decided who will govern Germany’s capital for the next five years. Among the winners was Elizaveta Kapinos, a Russian woman who moved to Germany in 2020. She was ninth on the Greens’ party list in Tempelhof-Schöneberg, where the party won 14 district council seats. Meduza spoke with Kapinos about her childhood in Kamchatka, her political career in Berlin, and working with Alternative for Germany (AfD).