In Russia, the accounts of the German Goethe Cultural Center in Russia (Goethe Institute) were blocked, writes The Insider, citing two sources.
According to the interlocutor of the edition, all employees of the institute continue to work. “Everyone is very depressed, the specific reason is unknown, but read the statement of Maria Zakharova about the Russian House in Berlin,” he said.
This is about statement representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova dated January 27 this year regarding restrictions on the Russian House of Science and Art in Berlin. In December 2022, according to her, the German authorities froze the organization’s accounts. “If the situation around the Russian House of Science and Art in Berlin does not normalize, then retaliatory measures against the branches of the Goethe Institute in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Novosibirsk will not be long in coming,” she said.
According to The Insider, banks are returning payments to those who paid for courses. “Exams were held at the Goethe Institute on Thursday and Friday, and students wrote letters of guarantee that they would pay as soon as the opportunity arose,” said one of the interlocutors. Another source said that the institute’s leadership, together with the embassy and the Foreign Ministry, are considering ways to solve the problem.
The Goethe-Institut, as stated on the website, is a German cultural institution with branches in many countries around the world. The activities of the organization are aimed at popularizing the German language abroad and expanding international cooperation in the field of culture. Goethe-Institut centers operate in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Novosibirsk.
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On January 20, the Berlin prosecutor’s office began checking the Russian House of Science and Art (“Russian House”) for compliance with the law on foreign trade and payments during the period of sanctions restrictions. Volker Beck, a deputy from the Green Party, filed a complaint with the prosecutor’s office. He said that “it is simply unacceptable for an organization in Germany to be engaged in Kremlin propaganda, while people are dying every day in the war in Ukraine.”
The Insider notes that Russia House has become one of the instruments of “hybrid warfare, ideological propaganda and political interference in German affairs.” It is the largest division of Rossotrudnichestvo and costs Russian taxpayers about $10 million a year, writes edition.
The Russian House of Science and Art also paid for a trip to Russia for Maxim Shlund and his common-law wife Elena Kolbasnikova, who organized a rally in Cologne last September in support of the Kremlin. Pro-Russian activists carried banners demanding the lifting of sanctions against Moscow and an embargo on German arms supplies to Ukraine. How figured out The Insider, Schlund turned out to be the previously convicted Russian Rostislav Teslyuk.
