The investigation concerns unidentified persons or tenants of the Russian House premises on suspicion of violating the Foreign Trade and Payments Act, the Berlin prosecutor's office told Süddeutsche Zeitung.
The Russian House in Berlin is part of Rossotrudnichestvo, which the European Union added to its sanctions list in July 2022. Its assets are consequently frozen and any payments to it are prohibited. According to the German Finance Ministry, cited by SZ, any payment from which Rossotrudnichestvo benefits constitutes a sanctions violation.
Prosecutors are examining on what grounds tenants paid rent in the building of the sanctioned agency and who received the money. They also intend to establish the fate of funds that Rossotrudnichestvo is believed to have continued collecting from visitors to its events after 2022 - from tickets to concerts and literary evenings, and payments for Russian language courses. According to SZ, a system of shell companies may have been used, with payments routed out of Berlin through a chain of such firms.
In early September, the German government decided to close the Russian House in Berlin and the Russian Consulate General in Bonn. The move followed an attempted drone attack with explosives on Leipzig/Halle Airport, which German authorities assessed was carried out by Russian intelligence services. In response, Moscow closed three branches of the Goethe-Institut in Russia and the German Consulate General in St Petersburg.
Russian House staff left Germany on 10 September. Some establishments in the building on Friedrichstrasse are still operating, however: the MnogoKnig bookstore on the ground floor, a canteen and a visa centre in the lobby remain open. In all, besides the Rossotrudnichestvo branch, the premises were rented by a translation bureau, a visa agency, a Russian Post office, a Russian cuisine canteen and a bookstore of the Latvian chain Mnogoknig.
Identifying many of the companies renting space in the building proved difficult. "No one, it seems, knows exactly who runs these businesses and who ultimately receives the profit from their activities," Süddeutsche Zeitung writes.
The officially stated mission of the Russian Houses is to promote cultural exchange and popularise Russian culture and language abroad. In 2016, the European Parliament in a resolution called Rossotrudnichestvo a tool for spreading Russian propaganda, and in July 2022 the European Union said it "acts as an umbrella organisation for a network of Russian compatriots and influence agents." German media have repeatedly reported on the Russian House in Berlin as a cover for espionage by Russian intelligence services.