Putin's propaganda center in Berlin?

2025-06-30 08:38:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

In the heart of Berlin, there is still a "Russian House." Critics say it is used for propaganda for Putin's Russia. Germany pays Moscow a tax of 70,000 euros a year for the land.

It has been hotly debated in the past and is still hotly debated today: the "Russian House" in Berlin. It is located on Friedrichstrasse - in the center of the German capital. It is a massive building with seven floors and almost 30,000 square meters of floor space.

It opened in 1984. Back then, during the GDR, it was supposed to foster friendship with the Soviet Union - with concerts, film screenings and literary evenings. And with its own small bookstore.

Today's managers still claim that friendship between the two countries is nurtured here: "The 'Russian House' is an embassy of Russian culture in the heart of Berlin," the website of the Russian Embassy in Germany states.

But many critics say: The events, which, according to the management of the Russian House, attract about 200,000 visitors a year, serve mainly as propaganda for Vladimir Putin's Russia.

Selling soap in the form of tanks

Berlin media regularly report on events at the cinema located in this institution, where, for example, a film about the Holocaust was shown, in which Ukrainian citizens were portrayed as Nazis. And if Robin Wagener, an environmentalist member of the Bundestag, is to be believed, at the "Russian House" parents can buy their children soap in the shape of tanks there.

Wagener told DW: "It's time to understand that this is not about cooperation and mutual cultural work, but about Russian and Putin's war propaganda in Germany."

That's why Wagener now wants to examine a particularly strange detail: The land on Friedrichstrasse is owned by Germany, while the facility is managed by the Russian state agency "Rossotrudnichestvo," which translates as "Federal Agency for Affairs of the Commonwealth of Independent States, Compatriots Living Abroad, and for International Humanitarian Cooperation."

The organization "Rossotrudnichestvo", which is supposed to promote the Russian language abroad, is currently present in 62 countries around the world through 73 similar institutions like the one in Berlin. Since 2022, following the Russian attack on Ukraine, the agency has been on the EU sanctions list.

At the time, Brussels stated that the agency's goal was to "strengthen public acceptance of the occupied Ukrainian territories as Russian." It further states that the director and deputy director clearly expressed their support for Russia's aggressive war against Ukraine.

German taxpayers' money for Putin's propaganda?

However, the German federal government, as the de facto owner of the land, pays up to 70,000 euros in property tax to the Tax Administration. This stems from an old agreement between Germany and Russia, by which they mutually recognized their cultural cooperation.

Wagener wants the €70,000 land tax to be waived during the upcoming budget negotiations. He floated the idea a year ago, but due to chaotic disagreements within the so-called traffic light coalition (SPD, Greens, FDP), it was not possible to pass the budget at that time.

But now there is a possibility of budget approval. Wagener explains his request as follows: "The original meaning of the Russian House, which was to promote mutual cultural exchange, has long been lost... Russia is constantly escalating the situation and thereby further straining relations. Even the basis of the cultural agreement was mutual cultural and scientific exchange."

Wagener sent an official question to the federal government on the matter. The answer, in a somewhat bureaucratic manner, states: "In relation to the facility, which is located on the aforementioned land and which is owned by the Russian Federation, the Federal Republic of Germany pays property tax on behalf of the Russian Federation due to a legal obligation arising from the bilateral German-Russian agreement on property issues of cultural institutions from 2013." So this is an agreement that was concluded before the annexation of Crimea by Russia.

Fear of Russian reaction

Whether these funds will actually be stopped is extremely uncertain. The German Foreign Ministry has repeatedly emphasized that the staff of the "Russian House" in Germany have diplomatic status.

It has long been considered an open secret in political circles that the federal government fears an open conflict over the "Russian House" because it fears that the Russian government might react by closing the Goethe Institute in Moscow.

But Wagener will continue his fight for closure: "I believe that the 'Russian House' has no future as a cultural intermediary. If someone seriously wants to deal with Russian culture - which I sincerely welcome - there are also civil meeting places for those people who are mainly persecuted in Russia and who now live here in Germany because they cannot freely live their culture in their own country."

However, the "Russian House" will, in all likelihood, continue its activities in the heart of Berlin, on one of the most famous streets of the German capital./ DW