Russia will close the cultural centers of the German Goethe Institute in the country, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said today, as quoted by TASS.
The decision comes after Germany blamed Russia for a drone incident at Leipzig/Halle airport and announced retaliatory measures, including the closure of the Russian cultural center in Berlin and the Russian Consulate General in Bonn, Reuters reported.
Lavrov said Russia would close the Goethe Institute centers in the country. in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Yekaterinburg in response to the German decision to terminate the activities of the Russian House in Berlin.
“They deliberately took this step – they could not have failed to understand this – which means the end of their cultural presence in Russia“, Lavrov said at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok.
According to him, the German cultural centers continued to operate “despite all the complications in our relations with the West related to Ukraine“.
The first “Goethe“ Institute in Russia opened its doors in Moscow in 1992, shortly after the collapse of the Soviet Union. In 2018, following a diplomatic row with Britain, Moscow ordered the closure of the British Council in Russia.
Yesterday, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko said that Moscow would respond "very soon" to the decision to close the Russian Consulate General in Bonn.
German authorities have blamed Russia for the failed drone attack on Leipzig/Halle airport. Russian President Vladimir Putin has rejected the accusation and said that Germany has fabricated evidence to attribute the incident to Moscow.