How to make Moscow pay for its attack on Ukraine? The Berlin municipality is hesitating, but not over billions of euros, but over the fate of three crumbling buildings called "Russian Houses", a legacy of the Soviet period, writes BTA, citing AFP.
These three three-story buildings, dating from the 1930s, housed Soviet forces in "Karlshorst", a district of East Berlin where Nazi Germany's surrender in World War II was signed.
Since the departure of Soviet occupation troops in 1994 after the reunification of Germany and the collapse of the Soviet Union, the buildings have been abandoned, their condition deteriorating little by little every year.
The buildings with broken windows are surrounded by construction barriers and provide shelter only to passing raccoons, while low trees and overgrown weeds penetrate through the balconies and facades.
Lilya Usik, a city councilor of Ukrainian origin, has been campaigning for two years to seize properties that could potentially be used to benefit Kiev, even though they are not on the list of sanctioned Russian assets drawn up by Western countries.
The city councilor notes that in addition to the war and the reception of thousands of Ukrainians, Berlin has too great a housing shortage to leave entire properties in disrepair.
Residents ask the same questions: "What is happening to these buildings? Can you do something politically?", says Usik.
Property rights, complex administrative procedures, diplomatic caution... All these factors combine, although a possible expropriation procedure has not yet been envisaged.
The municipal councilor assures that she has already knocked on many doors.
Cleverly avoiding questions
These hesitations are reminiscent of the lack of a common position of the Europeans, who took nearly four years to find a complex compromise regarding the use of frozen Russian assets, amounting to tens of billions of euros, for the benefit of Ukraine, without formally confiscating the amount.
The fears are the possible strong response from Russia.
Kiev has also criticized the Europeans for their lack of determination regarding other issues, such as the detention of oil tankers from the Russian shadow fleet, whose cargoes finance the Kremlin's war and evade sanctions.
In Germany, the government has not yet made a firm decision regarding the German subsidiaries of the Russian oil giant "Rosneft", the last vestige of the large-scale energy cooperation between Russia and Germany before the war.
As for the "Russian homes" in the "Karlshorst" district at every stage the answer to their future is cleverly avoided.
One possible solution would be expropriation, since the owner, Russia, is not fulfilling its obligations to maintain the building.
Another potential option is for the authorities to take advantage of the historic monument status of one of the buildings.
"I have never been able to understand the real reason why no decision could be made about these buildings", adds Usik, who is from Donetsk, devastated by fighting and which Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to annex.
When asked by AFP, the Berlin city hall assured that it needed Russia's consent to use the buildings, which "is not currently available". The department specifies that in 2020 a request was made to the Russian embassy for a possible purchase of the properties, which remained unanswered.
And what can be said about a possible expropriation procedure? The city hall refers to the Lichtenberg district administration, under whose jurisdiction the Karlshorst district also falls. However, the administration limits itself to the answer that it "cooperates with the municipal authorities and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs".
As for the German Foreign Ministry, which AFP also asked for comment, it stated that it is not a competent authority, since the buildings do not have diplomatic status and because Russia "has the same rights and obligations as any other private owner".
We return to where we started. The Russian embassy, which AFP asked for a statement on the subject, declined to comment.