Luisa Amtsberg, the German Ombudsman, Commissioner of the German government in the field of human rights and humanitarian aid, warns against the boycott of Russian culture.
She urges not to hold all Russians responsible for the war unleashed by Putin in Ukraine:
“It would be wrong because of Putin’s war to stop going to Russian restaurants or to boycott Russian art and culture.”
The politician stated this on April 19 in an interview with the German newspaper Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung (NOZ):
“Communicate with each other, including in the field of art and culture – and you will see that not all Russians approve of this aggressive war.”
Noting the rejection of Russian literature in some German bookstores, Amtsberg says:
“I also think it’s completely wrong that stores seem to be taking Dostoyevsky and Tolstoy off the shelves. Putin himself is not Russia, and even less is he a symbol of Russian culture. It’s just wrong to treat Russians with some kind of hostility or hold them responsible for this war.”
Earlier, an official representative of the German government said about discrimination against Russian-speakers in Germany:
“Yes, there are such offenses, but there is no reason to talk about a growing or strongly growing hostility towards Russian-speaking people in Germany.”
In this sense, he spoke about disinformation on the Russian side. Earlier, the German authorities noted that over the past week the number of offenses motivated by both anti-Russian and anti-Ukrainian sentiments has indeed increased. DW.
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