By Christian Britschgi  Reason

Yanking The Batman from Moscow theaters won’t bring peace to Ukraine, it will just sever much-needed cultural connection with everyday Russians.

Last Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a violent invasion of neighboring Ukraine.

Late that night East Coast time, the D.C. bar and restaurant Russia House—located just across the street from Reason‘s D.C. office—had its windows smashed in and its Russian flag (flown next to its American one) torn down. The following night, vandals left anti-Russian signs on the business.

The vandalism of Russia House is both condemnable (no matter who the owners are) and poorly targeted: According to its website, one of Russia House’s two owners is an American military veteran. The other is from Lithuania.

“It’s just sad is what it is, that there’s people with this mindset out there that because of the name of the restaurant that we are politically affiliated or government affiliated,” said co-owner Adam McGovern to local outlet WTOP. “Our job is to make people happy and give them an experience, not promote anything or any country’s political views.”

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