"Destructive green mentality"? This is what the Left and BSW say about the debate on the "Russian House"
Now the Left and the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) are also joining the discussion about the “Russian House” in Berlin. The German government , which is responsible for the property tax on the Russian event center, must of course fulfill its contractual obligations, says Maximilian Schirmer, deputy leader of the Left Party, to the Berliner Zeitung. "Whether the operation of a Russian propaganda institution in Germany should be tolerated is another matter."
Berlin BSW chairman Alexander King, however, says: “As if closing the Russian House or refusing to pay the property taxes would be a contribution to ending the war.”
The debate was sparked by a request from Green Party member of the Bundestag Robin Wagener to the government, which the news magazine Focus reported on a few days ago. The event center is owned by the Russian state. According to the Federal Foreign Office, the property tax for the building is paid by the federal government, as the land belongs to the federal government. Last year, €70,000 was paid from the budget. The Green Party politician called for the closure of the facility—or at least a halt to payments.
The Federal Foreign Office, meanwhile, refers to contractual obligations. "The Federal Republic of Germany pays the property tax on the property as the owner and is therefore the primary property tax debtor," it states. "With regard to the house located on the property, which is owned by the Russian Federation, the Federal Republic of Germany pays the property tax for the Russian Federation based on its legal obligation under the 2013 bilateral German-Russian agreement on property issues of cultural institutes."
The "Russian House" on Friedrichstraße in the Mitte district offers cultural events, film screenings, and language courses, among other things. It is operated by the Russian government agency Rossotrudnichestvo, which is part of the Moscow Foreign Ministry and has been on the EU sanctions list since July 2022. The Russian Embassy describes the facility as "Russia's cultural embassy in the heart of Berlin." Critics see it as an instrument of Russian propaganda, including in relation to the war in Ukraine. It was opened in 1984 in the GDR , then still under the name "House of Soviet Science and Culture."
The Green Party in the Bundestag intends to push for a "blocking of budget funds" in the upcoming budget process, said MP Wagener in response to a query from this newspaper. "The Russian House is not a harmless cultural institution, but part of the Russian information warfare with which the Kremlin intends to manipulate opinions here," said Wagener, who is his parliamentary group's representative for Eastern Europe. "Germany cannot finance an organization that spreads Russian propaganda and is sanctioned by Europe." The payments must therefore be stopped, for which he is counting on the support of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU)-Left Party (SPD) coalition.
Whether the operation can be prohibited is something that could, of course, be examined, says Maximilian Schirmer of the Left Party. "Confiscation of the building as part of the freeze on Russian foreign assets could also be an option."
King, a member of the Berlin House of Representatives and a member of the Berlin BSW (Berlin State Parliament), sees things differently. "The demand to close the 'Russian House' and to render the German-Russian agreement on property issues for cultural institutes irrelevant is an expression of a destructive Green mentality that is not aimed at overcoming conflicts, but rather at deepening them," King told this newspaper. The Greens are "inventive in the worst sense when it comes to severing even the smallest remaining connection between Russia and Germany."
Berliner-zeitung
