An arson attack was carried out on the International German-Russian Lomonossow School in Berlin-Marzahn on Friday morning. The state security agency responsible for political crimes at the State Criminal Police Office (LKA) has taken over the investigation. “We assume an intentional act and a connection to the war in Ukraine,” said a police spokesman on Friday.
It is just one of numerous cases in which Russian institutions and people with Russian roots have been attacked and attacked. Since Beginning of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine As of Friday, the Berlin police have registered around 100 such and similar incidents, as a spokeswoman said on Friday. Buildings and Russian clubs were attacked, Russian media, embassy employees and private individuals were attacked. It’s mostly about damage to property threat and insults. Most cases are classified as “anti-Russian”.
Social Senator Katja Kipping (LINKE) warned against unjustified hostility towards Russians in Berlin with a view to the Putin war in Ukraine. She is “greatly concerned that all the disgust, all the anger we have towards Putin and his government, will also affect Russian-speaking people here in Berlin,” said the left-wing politician on ZDF on Thursday evening.
It touches her when she hears how children with a Russian background are attacked in the schoolyard for it. “We have to be careful that the hate that Putin sows doesn’t have to be dealt with here by people who don’t agree with him either – but happen to speak the same language.”
Berlin’s governing mayor also appealed to people of Russian and Ukrainian origin from Berlin. “I call on all people of Ukrainian and Russian descent in Berlin not to have this conflict on our streets, but to deal with each other peacefully,” said Franzika Giffey (SPD) on Friday on the occasion of the National Day of Remembrance for the Victims of Terrorist Violence together a sign of peace and international understanding in our city, in the Berlin of freedom.”
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During the arson attack on the Lomonosov school, a passer-by noticed smoke around 3:20 a.m. on Friday morning. Accordingly, there was a fire in the entrance area of the school gym. The fire brigade was able to extinguish the fire. According to the fire brigade, objects placed in the entrance area of the hall on Cosmonauts’ Alley caught fire. Nobody got hurt. According to an initial assessment, however, the structure of the gym building could be affected by the fire.
As the “BZ” reports, the perpetrators are said to have been captured by several surveillance cameras when they set a fire in the entrance area of the private school. The Lomonossow School wants to promote the integration of families with children who come from the former Soviet Union and live in Berlin.
Other buildings in Berlin are also affected by attacks. As early as March 8, an employee of the police property security department noticed graffiti on the “Russian House”, a cultural institute directly controlled and supported by the Kremlin. The word “murderer” was written on a pillar. The police arranged for the letters to be removed.
However, people from Ukraine are also met with hatred. On Thursday, a group of Jewish children and young people who fled to Berlin from the Ukraine were in a playground in the Preußenpark in Wilmersdorf. A camera team accompanied the group.
Then a 54-year-old German came along and, according to the police, made “pro-Russian statements” about the children. Police officers who rushed to calm the situation, took the man’s personal details and issued him with a dismissal. A crime was not found, however, said a police spokeswoman.
