- The Russian House in Berlin has a cinema, a travel agency and a bookstore
German authorities are under pressure to close a cultural centre in Berlin accused of being a front for Russian spies and propaganda.
The Russian House in Berlin has a cinema, a travel agency and a bookstore and promotes itself as a meeting place for Russians.
But it could all be a front for Russian spies and propaganda, according to concerned politicians, who are urging German authorities to close the Russian House.
“The Russian House has long served as an extension of the Kremlin, spreading disinformation and propaganda,” said Roderich Kiesewetter, crisis prevention spokesman for the German opposition CDU party. Telegraph.
And a senior CDU official warned the cultural centre was a front for “totalitarian” Russian propaganda and was probably being used to avoid EU sanctions on Russia, with Kiesewetter adding: “Alleged violations of sanctions are also known.”
The Russian House in Berlin (pictured above) houses a cinema, a travel agency and a bookstore and promotes itself as a meeting place for Russians.
Kiesewetter criticised Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government and said they were not doing enough to address concerns that the Russia House was being used for propaganda, saying it was “absolutely possible” to close it from a legal point of view.
He added that the Russian House is run by the Russian government agency Rossotrudnichestvo, often seen as being connected to Russian spies, and therefore “the accusation that the house may also serve as a hub for espionage activities or agent activities is obvious.”
Russian House director Pavel Izvolsky expressed confusion over why sanctions were imposed on Rossotrudnichestvo when speaking to local media earlier this year.
He said: “I don’t know why Rossotrudnichestvo is under sanctions. It was a decision by Brussels and the EU. It was a big surprise for me.”
“There are many ministries in the Russian government. Why did they sanction us and not the Ministry of Defense? I don’t understand.”
The Russian House had already come under fire for screening a Holocaust film in October 2022 that portrayed Ukrainians as Nazis, echoing Vladimir Putin’s war propaganda that his soldiers were fighting Nazis in Ukraine.
But the Russian House bookstore still sells books by Russian war ideologues and right-wing extremists, as well as toys glorifying Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, according to local media.
The bookstore also offers a soap workshop for children, where they can make soap themselves using three molds: a hand grenade, a pistol and a Russian-made tank.
The German government’s reluctance to close the Russian House is believed to be due to fears that Russia would in turn close the German cultural centre, the Goethe Institute, in Moscow.
But the Russian House could be a front for Russian spies and propaganda, according to concerned politicians, who are urging German authorities to close the Russian House.
A spokesman for the German Foreign Office said: ‘At the initiative of the German federal government, the Russian House operational organisation has been subject to EU-wide sanctions since 21 July 2022.
‘The inclusion in the list means that all assets of the Rossotrudnichestvo operational organisation located in the EU will be frozen.
‘In addition, a total ban on making assets available is imposed, meaning that EU legal entities may not, directly or indirectly, make economic resources or financial means available to the organisation or its affiliated entities.’
The Berlin Public Prosecutor’s Office and the Central Office for the Enforcement of Customs Sanctions consider the financing of the Russian House to be a criminal offence, according to a German media outlet Mirror of the day reports.
Authorities are reportedly investigating “unknown persons and the tenants of the Russian House.”
