Berlin’s ‘Russian House’ stayed open despite Russia’s war in Ukraine and EU sanctions, shielded by a reciprocal deal over Moscow’s Goethe-Institut. Germany’s sabotage accusation was the final straw.

Germany's Foreign Ministry closed the Russian House in Berlin and the Russian consulate in Bonn after blaming Russia for a sabotage attempt involving explosive-laden drones near Leipzig Airport, one of which was defused near a Ukrainian cargo plane. The center, occupying a full city block on Friedrichstraße since 1984, had kept running through the full-scale invasion of Ukraine and EU sanctions on its parent agency Rossotrudnichestvo, unlike sister institutions in six other European countries that suspended operations years earlier.

A 99-year lease agreement tied the Berlin building's fate to the Goethe-Institut's foothold in Moscow, which is reportedly why German officials kept the doors open despite sanctions freezing the center's EU assets and a since-abandoned foreign trade law investigation. The center kept collecting rent from roughly 115 residents in its apartments even while barred from receiving EU funds, and reportedly screened RT material calling Ukrainians Nazis after 2022.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova criticized the closure, according to the report, though her full remarks were not included.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.