- The Russian House in Berlin has a cinema, travel agency and bookshop
German authorities are under pressure to close a cultural centre in Berlin, which they say is a front for Russian spies and propaganda.
The Russian House in Berlin has a cinema, a travel agency and a bookshop and promotes itself as a meeting place for Russians.
But according to concerned politicians, it could all be a cover for Russian spies and propaganda, urging German authorities to close the Russian House.
“The Russian House has long served as an extension of the Kremlin, spreading disinformation and propaganda,” Roderich Kiesewetter, the crisis prevention spokesman for Germany’s opposition party CDU, told the Telegraph.
A senior CDU figure warned that the cultural centre is a front for “totalitarian” Russian propaganda and is likely being used to circumvent EU sanctions on Russia. Kiesewetter added: “There are also suspected violations of sanctions.”
The Russian House in Berlin (pictured above) has a cinema, a travel agency and a bookshop and markets itself as a meeting place for Russians
Kiesewetter criticized Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government, saying it was not doing enough to address concerns that the Russian House was being used for propaganda. He said it was “absolutely possible” to close it from a legal perspective.
He added that the Russian House is run by the Russian government agency Rossotrudnichestvo, which is often assumed to be related to Russian spies, and that therefore “the accusation that the House can also serve as a hub for espionage or agent activities is clear.”
Earlier this year, speaking to local media, the director of the Russian House, Pavel Izvolsky, expressed confusion over the reasons for imposing sanctions on Rossotrudnichestvo.
He said: ‘I don’t know why Rossotrudnichestvo is under sanctions. It was a decision by Brussels and the EU. It came as a big surprise to me.
“There are many ministries of the Russian government. Why did they sanction us and not the Ministry of Defense? I don’t understand.”
The Russian House has previously come under fire for showing a Holocaust film in October 2022 that portrayed Ukrainians as Nazis, reminiscent of Vladimir Putin’s war propaganda that his soldiers were fighting Nazis in Ukraine.
According to local media, the bookstore in the Russian House still sells books by Russian war thinkers and far-right activists, as well as toys glorifying the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The bookstore also offers a ‘soap workshop’ for children, where they can make their own soap using three molds: a hand grenade, a pistol and a Russian tank.
It is suspected that the German government’s reluctance to close the Russian House stems from the fear that Russia could close the German cultural center, the Goethe Institute, in Moscow in return.
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 spokesperson for the German Foreign Ministry said: ‘At the instigation of the German Federal Government, the operating company of the Russian House has been sanctioned throughout the EU since July 21, 2022.
‘The listing will result in all assets in the EU of the operating company Rossotrudnichestvo being frozen.
‘In addition, there is a general ban on the provision of assets. This means that EU legal entities may not make economic resources or financial resources available directly or indirectly to the organisation or its affiliated entities.’
The Berlin Public Prosecutor’s Office and the Central Office for Sanctions Enforcement at Customs consider the financing of the Russian House to be a criminal offense, the German Press Agency reports Day mirror defeated.
According to reports, the authorities are conducting investigations “against unknown persons and against the tenants of the Russian House.”