The images caused a shock in Germany… In Berlin, Frankfurt or Hanover, hundreds of cars displaying the Russian flag parade through the streets every weekend, to protest “against propaganda at school, for the protection of Russian speakers, against discrimination” of which they claim to be victims. The demonstrators make no secret of their attachment to the Moscow regime, even of their support for the war in Ukraine. At the start of the conflict, several vehicles even sported the “Z” attached to all the tanks launched by Vladimir Putin to attack Ukraine (a badge now banned in Germany), not hesitating, as in Berlin, to circulate in front of the central station of the city, where most of the Ukrainian refugees arrive, often traumatized.
Called “Putin’s fascist”
Few customers, this Monday evening, in the Grüne Lampe restaurant, a veritable institution of Russian cuisine in the German capital, renowned for its Sunday caviar brunch. A few groups of men are seated, their faces closed when someone tries to approach them. Two customers came out for a cigarette. Hostile gaze, they refuse to comment on the current situation. “The press? They only tell lies…” ensures the most eloquent. Friendly, the waitress, Sofia, 21, talks about the threats received by telephone, the sudden hostile comments on the Internet (“Since February 24, Russian cuisine has tasted of blood, to be avoided”) or a psychically disturbed Ukrainian customer who threatened the room with a screwdriver…
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“We are an oriental restaurant. Here work Russians, Ukrainians, Kazakhs… All this is so strange. It lasted at least three weeks, I would say that since then it has calmed down”, Sofia explains. Born in Berlin, the girl spent her early childhood in Russia, before returning to Germany. “My parents would have preferred to stay in Russia, they made this decision for us children”, she explains. In the family, there is never any question of “events”, especially not with those who have remained in the country. “They ask us on the phone if everything is fine. They hear that Russians are discriminated against, threatened. They worry about us. »
In fact, Russian propaganda has largely seized on the “new Russophobia” of which Russians in Germany are allegedly victims. The arson attack, at night, of a Russian school in the Marzahn district of Berlin, gave water to the propaganda mill, even if the facts were immediately condemned unequivocally by the President of the Republic, Frank -Walter Steinmeier.
“There are actors on the Russian side who are working on a narrative that Russians are no longer safe in Germany”observes Bernd Fabritius, in charge of the government for the questions of minorities and Aussiedler, those Russians of German origin who arrived in the Federal Republic after the collapse of the Soviet Union. On its home page, the Russian Embassy invites Russians and Russian-speakers to denounce the facts of which they are victims. Like Natalia in Wuppertal, who says she was called “Putin’s Fascist” by her neighbours, Anna, director of a Russian school in Hamburg, who says she was jostled by passers-by. Or Viktoria whose daughter was bullied at school for being Russian.
“The vast majority do not approve of war”
About 3.5 million people with a migration history linked to Russia live in Germany, according to estimates by Jannis Panagiotidis of the Recet research center in Vienna. 61% of them are of Russian mother tongue. Most come from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus or Kazakhstan. Some are Aussiedlerothers arrived benefiting from the “contingents” of visas granted by Berlin to the Jewish community of the Soviet Union, still others are scholarship students in Germany or exiles who fled the regimes of Vladimir Putin or Belarus Alexander Lukashenko.
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“The vast majority do not approve of warinsists Hans-Christian Petersen, migration specialist at the University of Osnabrück. An estimated 25% of them are receptive to Kremlin propaganda and get information through propaganda channels. Among these 25%, only a minority is ready to participate in pro-Putin demonstrations such as those observed in Berlin or Hanover. »