Russia to close branches of Germany's Goethe-Institut after drone spat, foreign minister says
Russia will shut Goethe-Institut centers in three cities after Germany blamed Moscow for a drone incident and closed Russian cultural sites.
- On Thursday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced Russia will close Germany's Goethe-Institut cultural centers following Germany's accusation that Russia caused a drone incident at the Leipzig and Halle Airport.
- Germany's response to the incident included closing a Russian cultural center in Berlin and a consulate in Bonn, which Lavrov stated Germany "deliberately took this step" to provoke the closure.
- The centers in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Yekaterinburg had remained open "despite all the Ukrainian complications in our relations with the West," Lavrov added, with the first institute opening in Moscow in 1992.
- On Wednesday, Lavrov's deputy Alexander Grushko warned Russia would retaliate "very soon" for the Bonn consulate closure, echoing Russia's 2018 British Council closure following a diplomatic spat with Britain.
- President Vladimir Putin accused Germany on Tuesday of planting evidence to blame Moscow for the incident, further straining already tense diplomatic relations between the two nations.
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184 Articles
Russia Will Close Germany’s Goethe-Institut Cultural Centers, Lavrov Says
Russia will close Germany's Goethe-Institut cultural centers, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Thursday, after German officials ordered the closure of the Russian cultural center in Berlin as retaliation for a drone incident at the Leipzig/Halle Airport that they blamed on Moscow.
Drones on Kiev and Odessa: 17 wounded. Moscow takes down 416 aircraft. Lavrov closes the Russian Goethe Institut
Russia to close German cultural centres after Berlin blames Moscow for airport drone plot
Mr. Lavrov said that cultural centres belonging to Germany's Goethe-Institut would be closed in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Yekaterinburg, adding that any other response would show a lack of “self-respect” on Russia's part
Russia shuts Goethe centres after Germany closes Russian House
Russia will shut German cultural centres after Berlin closed Russian facilities over the Leipzig/Halle airport incident. The tit-for-tat move sharpens Russia-Germany tensions as the EU weighs fresh punitive measures.
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