Germany complains about Baden-Baden deserted without Russians

The drinking gallery in Baden-Baden. Archival photoMOSCOW, 18 Jul. The German city of Baden-Baden, which for 200 years has been a «place of attraction for Russians», is unlikely to regain the sympathy of the Russians, which will result in serious consequences for it, writes the Die Welt newspaper. Baden-Baden is a small resort town with 1,150 inhabitants registered with a Russian passport and about the same number with dual citizenship. As the newspaper writes, the usual situation here changed after the aggravation of the Ukrainian crisis: «the most Russian city in Germany» experienced the first wave of shocks when the Russian flag was removed from the Kurhaus (a hall for healing water procedures — ed.) and the Baden-Baden town hall hung out Ukrainian flag.Media: at Cape d'Antibes in France, they complained about the lack of tourists from Russia «, without the word «Russian» in its composition. However, after a wave of protests, the company backtracked. At the same time, the concern of the head of the local tourist service, Nora Waggershausen, that the doctors, museums, hotels and boutiques of the city would suffer from the loss of rich Russian clients, «caused a whole storm of indignation.» «But you can't go against the facts: the shops on Sophienstrasse, the shopping street with the most expensive boutiques, are already empty. The pedestrian zone looks even worse,» the author of the material complains. These are unusual statements and events for a city that has been an object of attraction for many Russians and who has always been happy to earn on them, the article says. Now «much differently»: Baden-Baden has suspended partnerships with Yalta and Sochi, the local concert hall has distanced itself from conductor Valery Gergiev, who almost twenty-five years ago saved Germany's largest opera house from bankruptcy, and the performance of the singer Anna was also canceled Netrebko with the Berlin Symphony Orchestra. Free Democratic Party politician and chairman of the German-Russian Cultural Union René Loz, according to the newspaper, considers such a policy terrible. In his opinion, in the end, Baden-Baden only harms himself with such «ritual acts». «Many Russians invested in this city when it was bankrupt,» he said. At the same time, marketers believe that the share of Russian visitors has been decreasing in recent years, and the losses have long been compensated by other groups of visitors. So, in one of the local boutiques they said that the interests of Russians have shifted towards other countries. However, according to store owner Monika Schultz, they used to «behave well thanks to the Russians.» InoSMI >>European countries have refused to extradite criminals to Russia more than 40 times since March