All news

Moscow demands that Germany look into attack on Russian church, school in Berlin

In Berlin the Holy Prince Vladimir Church and elementary school named after Mikhail Lomonosov which teaches students in Russian and German have been attacked by some neo-Nazi group Konigsberg Legion
The entrance to the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Berlin EPA/Britta Pedersen
The entrance to the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Berlin
© EPA/Britta Pedersen

MOSCOW, April 23. /TASS/. Attacks on a Russian school and an Eastern Orthodox Church in Berlin are rooted in the anti-Russian campaign unleashed under a pretext of the Ukraine crisis, the Russian Foreign Ministry’s human rights ombudsman, Konstantin Dolgov, said on Thursday.

"The anti-Russian campaign unleashed in some Western countries under the pretext of developments in Ukraine and accompanied by unseen hysteria in the Western media facilitates creation of an extremely difficult atmosphere which spurs far-right activists on to carry out not only verbal attacks but direct assaults on everything that is linked to Russia in their understanding," Dolgov said.

"In Berlin the Holy Prince Vladimir Church and elementary school named after Mikhail Lomonosov which teaches students in Russian and German have been attacked by some neo-Nazi group called the Kцnigsberg Legion," Dolgov said.

"Over the last two months unidentified persons have been dropping leaflets with threats and insults, signed by the Kцnigsberg Legion organisation, on the church area, which say ‘Russian witches, we are not going to tolerate you in Marzahn-Hellersdorf any longer. Push off at once, otherwise there will be no mercy’," the diplomat said.

An explosive device damaged a mailbox on the church’s fence, he said.

"Several days later, the neo-Nazis committed an attack on the nearby elementary bilingual school named after Lomonosov," he said. "Penetrating into the fenced territory of the educational institution, they scattered leaflets containing similar messages."

Russia’s Embassy in Berlin has sent a note of protest to the German Foreign Ministry demanding a thorough investigation into attacks on the Russian Orthodox Church and an elementary school with lessons in German and Russian.

"Russia’s embassy in Berlin has immediately sent a note of protest to the German Foreign Ministry demanding a thorough investigation into the incident and taking all the necessary measures to prevent such things in the future," Dolgov said.

"However, who can give guarantees in the situation when it is the unnaturally stirred atmosphere of animosity towards our country that provokes such incidents?" he asked rhetorically adding that "Our Western partners should look into this situation with full seriousness.".