War in Ukraine: Pro-Russian demonstrations in Germany spark controversy
“Stop Hating Russians”.
Pro-Russian demonstration in Frankfurt, April 10, 2022. © AP - Boris Roessler
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In Germany, several pro-Russian demonstrations were organized this weekend across the country by members of the Russian-speaking community.
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“Against hatred and harassment”, “Truth and freedom of opinion rather than propaganda”.
In Frankfurt, about 600 people waving a tide of Russian tricolors gathered this Sunday near the city's banking district, under the surveillance of a large police force.
The protesters then went to the city's main cemetery and laid flowers there in front of the gates in memory of the Soviet soldiers who died during the Second World War.
In Hanover, in the north, the demonstrators were also numerous.
They organized a convoy of cars in single file under close police surveillance, while a counter-demonstration gathered 3,500 people under the slogan "Support Ukraine!"
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The day before in Lübeck, the police had ended up stopping a similar convoy of about sixty vehicles because of “breaches of the legislation”, in particular “the support shown for the war of aggression of Russia against Ukraine as well as the use of prohibited symbols,” local police said.
A similar demonstration also took place in Stuttgart.
The German authorities fear that the Russian-Ukrainian conflict will be imported into German territory.
Germany has 1.2 million people originating, themselves or their families, from Russia and 325,000 from Ukraine, to which must be added the arrival over the past month of more than 316,000 Ukrainian refugees.
The proliferation of demonstrations denouncing the "Russophobia" that would have won over Germany has provoked a lively debate in the country, because the authorities see in it a danger of instrumentalization and propaganda for the theses defended by Moscow in the war.
Since the start of the invasion of Ukraine, the police have recorded 383 anti-Russian crimes and 181 anti-Ukrainian crimes.
(
With
AFP)
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