Berlin (AFP) – How to make Moscow pay for its invasion of Ukraine? In Berlin, the municipality is procrastinating, not over billions of euros, but over the fate of three decrepit buildings nicknamed "Russian Houses", and inherited from the Soviet period.
Published on: 02/08/2026 - 10:05
These three-story buildings from the 1930s housed Soviet forces during the Cold War in this district of East Berlin, Karlshorst, where the Nazi capitulation was recorded.
Since the departure of these occupying troops in 1994 following German reunification and the collapse of the USSR, the buildings have been abandoned, deteriorating a little more each year.
The buildings with broken windows are surrounded by construction barriers, and only provide shelter for passing raccoons, while small trees and weeds pierce balconies and facades.
Lilia Usik, a municipal councilor originally from Ukraine, has been campaigning for two years to have these buildings seized for the possible benefit of kyiv, even if they are not on a list of assets sanctioned by the West.
The elected official also notes that Berlin, beyond the war and the reception of thousands of Ukrainians, is too severely lacking in housing to leave entire buildings abandoned.
Residents “ask again and again: what is happening with these buildings? Can you do something politically?”, says Ms. Usik.
Property law, complex administrative procedures, diplomatic prudence... Everything comes together, so much so that no expropriation procedure has even been considered.
The chosen one assures to knock on all the doors.
Kick into touch
These prevarications are reminiscent of those of the Europeans, who took almost four years to find a complex compromise to allow Ukraine to benefit from tens of billions of euros in frozen Russian assets, without seizing this money.
The reason is the fear of Russian reprisals.
kyiv also criticizes the Europeans for their reluctance on other issues, such as the seizure of tankers from the Russian ghost fleet whose cargoes finance the Kremlin's war effort, circumventing sanctions.
In Germany, the government has still not found a lasting solution for German subsidiaries of the oil giant Rosneft, a vestige of the vast pre-war Russian-German energy cooperation.
When it comes to the “Russian Houses” of Karlshorst, at each level, we kick in.
One solution would be an expropriation because the owner, Russia, would not respect an obligation to maintain the premises.
Another idea: take advantage of the fact that one of the buildings is classified as a historic monument.
“I have never been able to discover the reason why no solution was found for these buildings,” continues Ms. Usik, originally from the Donetsk region, ravaged by the fighting and whose annexation Vladimir Putin demands.
Questioned by AFP, the Berlin town hall ensures that it needs Russia's agreement to use these buildings, "which is not the case to date", she notes, specifying that it requested the embassy in 2020 for a purchase, without ever receiving a response.
As for a possible expropriation procedure? The town hall of the capital refers to that of the district of Lichtenberg, which includes Karlshorst. And this in return is limited to ensuring “coordination with the municipal authorities and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs”.
On the side of German diplomacy, also requested by the AFP, we judge ourselves to be incompetent, noting that these buildings do not have diplomatic status, and that therefore Russia "has the same rights and obligations as any other private owner".
Status quo then. And a subject on which the Russian embassy, contacted by AFP, does not want to comment.
jsk-alf/clp/lpt
© 2026 AFP
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