The German Federal Criminal Investigation Office (BKA) has recorded 318 “incidents of criminal relevance” in relation to the hostility currently experienced by citizens of Russian origin on the territory of the European country, reports Der Spiegel. In Berlin alone, 86 attacks of this type have been reported since the start of Russia’s military actions in Ukraine on February 24.
The attacks range from insults and threats on the Internet and in the street to damage to property. Last week, a group of unknown assailants set fire to the gymnasium entrance of the German-Russian school Lomonosov in Berlin. Investigators consider the fire to be politically motivated in the wake of the Russian offensive in Ukraine.
Russian shops and restaurants are also affected, with sales falling amid calls for a boycott. The Gruene Lampe restaurant in the German capital, which offers Russian specialties and Georgian and Ukrainian dishes, received more than fifteen threatening calls, as well as insults on the Internet, where reviews of the type “from Thursday [24 de febrero]Russian food tastes like blood”, despite the fact that Russians, Ukrainians, Kazakhs and Moldovans work in the restaurant’s kitchen.
On the day of the start of the Russian military operation, two men showed up at the premises and began to insult the staff and customers, and one of the assailants even threatened to burn the place down, one of the waitresses told Der Spiegel.
It is estimated that several million Russian-speakers reside in Germany, around 26,000 of them in Berlin. A spokesman for the Ministry of the Interior stressed that the person responsible for the military actions in Ukraine is Russian President Vladimir Putin and not the Russian population, let alone citizens with Russian roots living in Germany.
