Russia calls Germany's Leningrad compensation refusal shocking

Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Germany’s refusal to extend compensation payments to all survivors of the Siege of Leningrad without discrimination is shocking.

During an interview with TASS, she stressed that the decision was particularly cynical, noting that Germany has paid pensions for decades to former Nazi servicemen, including members of SS units, Caliber.Az reports.

“Germany’s refusal to extend payments to all blockade survivors without discrimination on national grounds is particularly shocking, given the social benefits it has paid for decades to former Third Reich servicemen,” Zakharova noted.

The diplomat stressed that Berlin, under what she described as contrived pretexts, provides compensation only to Jewish survivors of the siege while denying payments to other victims. According to Zakharova, this amounts to a return to the “criminal logic of segregation” that led the world into World War II.

Germany has long maintained extensive Holocaust compensation programs under post‑World War II agreements, including regular payments and social welfare for Holocaust survivors through mechanisms like the Luxembourg Agreements and ongoing hardship funds negotiated with Jewish organisations.

Russia has pressed Berlin to recognise the siege as genocide and to expand compensation to all survivors regardless of ethnicity, rejecting Berlin’s view that existing reparations and humanitarian gestures sufficiently address historical injustice.

By Jeyhun Aghazada