The service center for the Russian people in the Malaga town of Marbella, Casa Russiahas been the object this Sunday of acts of vandalism with graffiti of various Nazi swastikas on its facade and several letters “Z” with which one distinguishes the russian troops invading Ukraine.
Next to the sign that says the name of the venue, in Spanish and Russian, as well as in the panes of the front door had written the word Russia and the “s” of the text had been replaced by the characteristic Nazi symbol.
Several “Z”s also appeared on the walls and columns of this business building, which opened in 2014, a letter with which the Russian army troops involved in the invasion of Ukraine are currently distinguished.
The Russian associations on the Costa del Sol have not wanted to pronounce about this incident, but in the days after the invasion began, a member of the Board of Directors of the Union of Organizations of Russian Compatriots in Spain and Andorra, Irina Chistyakova, denounced to EFE “the persecution of the Russians.”
Chistyakova assured that this growing hostility towards the Russian community “not only in Spain but in all the countries of Europe” it had been reflected in threatening phone messages, notes on car windshields, and even flat tires.
The representative of the group warned from Marbella -where more than 2,800 Russian citizens are currently registered- of the existence of “calls on the internet to go and burn the houses of Russians and occupy them or destroy the windows of businesses of Russian citizens”.
Many of Russian residents in Spain they fear for their physical integrity and that of their children so they prefer not to show their faces and appeal, as they did in a letter addressed to schools after the beginning of the invasion, for the collaboration of the educational community to put the conflict out of the classroom.